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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



POEMS 



JOHN T. LECKLIDER 




RICHARD G. BADGER 

THE GORHAM PRESS 
BOSTON 



Copyright, 1913, ^7 Joh° T. Lecklider 
All Rights Reserved 






THE GORHAM Press, Boston, U. s. a. 

©C/,A332735 



This Volume 

is Respectfully Dedicated 

to 

the Good Friends 

of My Native State 



PROEM 

From the fields of life I bring 
What I have gathered. 
More than individual 
Must be the book that tells 
The joys and sorrows 
Successes and failures 
The ambitions and defeats 
The longings and desires 
The aims and experiences 
The loves and hopes 
Of a single human life. 

As the years come and go 

Each one yearns, nay strives 

To paint his own great pictures 

To carve his own statues 

Produce his own sweet music 

Perfect his own judgments 

To possess an ideal home 

Choose and entertain his own friends 

And be accounted honorable by 

His neighbors, his town — state — nation 

So rounded and complete are 

The endowments of a human being 

That the least and greatest. 

Establishes his boundaries 

According to his own Ideals. ' 

Would it not be interesting to know 
The harvest value of a human Life? 
What lovely jewels — God, Master — Poet, 
Author of vast Creation, offers 
Each panting soul as the reward 
Of development. 



PREFATORY THOUGHTS 

Garments of thought from the loom of life 

Woven of joy, sorrow and strife, 

In patterns of morning and noonday light. 

Shot with starbeams bordered by night. 

Daily cullings of duties and cares, 

Golden wheat and common tares 

Born in the heart grown up in the brain 

Offspring of rapture, love and pain 

Earnest, spirituelle and plain. 

Visions of rapture on mountain heights 
Toil wrought tasks in the valley nights 
Whisperings of angels from far off shores 
Vision raptures and breaker roars. 
Words of hope for the weary brain 
Whispers of love for hearts in pain; 
Blossoms plucked in duty's haste 
Fountains found in the desert waste. 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Prefatory Thoughts 5 

The Certainties Beyond 17 

Lake Clear 17 

Flights of Cupid 18 

Sunrise at Sea 18 

The Lovers 19 

Men of Action 20 

The Young Maid's Soliloquy 21 

Who Can Answer 23 

Watchman ! What of the Times 23 

Shelf Marked 24 

Captives Here, Freemen Over There 24 

Under Law 25 

She Told Her Love 25 

The Call To Duty 26 

Beyond The Stars 26 

Seeking Wisdom 27 

Invocation 28 

Messengers of The Brain 29 

Known By What We Have Done 30 

Creed and Persecution 30 

Blessed Are The Merciful 32 

The Central Mind 33 

When I Get Home 34 

Man Was Not Made to Mourn 35 

Old and New 36 

After The Nuptials 37 

The Ubiquity and Waste of Life 39 

The Toiler 39 

God Walks Every Sea 41 

Spirit Hospitality 42 

A Lost Friend 43 

7 



CONTENTS 

Page 

To a Prude 43 

Thoughts On Creation 44 

The Good Is Always In Sight 48 

Thou Speakest To Me 49 

Arctic Lovers 49 

Singing Brook 52 

Transfiguration 52 

The Journey 53 

Be Of Good Cheer 54 

Remembered 55 

Dual Living 56 

What Will The Answer Be? 57 

Heart to Heart 58 

Life 59 

Beautiful Women 61 

Wasted Opportunities 62 

Are You Doing Your Best 64 

My Palace of Art 65 

A Surfeit of Evil 66 

The Better Country 67 

Creation's Masterpiece 68 

Heart Stories 68 

Origin and Destiny 69 

Touch 70 

Time 70 

Joy Is Immortal 71 

Evolution Or Kismet 72 

Love Casteth Out Fear 72 

Things We Really Know 72 

We See Dimly 73 

Ever in Debt 74 

The Life Trail 74 

Gathering Truth 75 

The Teacher of Nazareth 76 

This Every Day World 76 

8 



CONTENTS 

Page 

The First Frost, Nature's Tragedy 77 

The Game of Nature 78 

Hidden Wisdom 81 

Love 82 

Storm Lore 83 

Living Books 84 

Past and Future 85 

Love's Call 86 

Life and Knowledge 86 

The Road To Victory 87 

Galilee 88 

Nazareth 89 

The Work of a Century 90 

Georgian Bay, Canada 92 

Wars and Wounds 93 

My Friend and 1 94 

What is That in Thine Hand? 95 

Ideals 96 

A Part of Us Dies With Our Friends 96 

Pardon For Mistakes 97 

Flesh and Spirit 98 

Thought Messages 98 

Life is Good 99 

Blossoms of Light 99 

A Vision 100 

Possibilities 104 

Constantinople 104 

The Pharisee 105 

Water Lilies 106 

Wayside Lessons 107 

June Voices 108 

The Goodby Smile 109 

A Study in Nature 109 

A Wayside Flov^^er no 

Treasures of The Night in 

9 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Unrest II2 

Routine 113 

Duty and Ease 113 

Fenced In 114 

The River of Thought 116 

Discontent 117 

Paradox — Good and Evil 118 

Ambition 119 

Lost Thoughts 120 

A Day in Thebes 121 

The Monument Groups 122 

By the River 123 

Robin's Song — The Coming Spring 124 

U. S. Grant 125 

Children of the Brain 126 

The Kiss of Love 1 29 

Assurance 1 29 

Only a Procession 130 

Pictured Rocks 132 

Communion 135 

Education 137 

Mental Guests 139 

Right Thinking 139 

Some Day 140 

Birds of Passage 141 

Dreams of Sight 142 

The Land of Hope 143 

On Shore 144 

Cheerful Advice 145 

The Tragedy of Hate 145 

I Held Her Hand 146 

Guest of Tvv^o Worlds 147 

Immortelles 150 

Nature's Victory 150 

The Sun of the Soul 151 

10 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Days of Heaven on the Earth. 152 

The Gardener's Proposal I53 

Father's Face i54 

Outgrown 155 

Egypt and the Nile 157 

Mediterranean Sea I59 

Hopes That Fail 160 

Montreaux, Switzerland 1 61 

The Jungfrau 162 

The Mother-ness of Nature 162 

The Man Is Not a Failure Who Dies Trying. 163 

As Man Thinketh So is He 163 

If God Be God Follow Him 164 

The Degenerate 165 

After Many Years 165 

The Speech of Years 166 

Progress 167 

To a Canary 167 

Voices of the Night 168 

The Dead President 169 

The Conqueror 1 70 

Pearls and Roses 171 

Mother 171 

The Home Run 172 

Absent Minded 172 

Flowers at Midnight '. 173 

Weary of Winter 174 

Miss Natura I75 

Real Feasts 176 

Thought Has Color 176 

The Columbian Exposition — 1893 176 

The Upas of Sorrow 179 

Friends of Our Youth 179 

The Old Masters l8o 

The Might of Right 180 

II 



CONTENTS 

Page 

A Missionary 182 

As You Will 182 

Spring Violets 183 

Heart Power 185 

The Sun's Way 185 

A Child of Poverty 186 

A Northern Madrigal 187 

The Autumn Carnival 188 

My Library 189 

The St. Law^rence 190 

My Will 191 

Interviewed at Eighty 192 

A Spoiled Life I94 

Moods of the Heart I95 

What is Character? 196 

Songs in the Night 197 

Homes and Prisons 198 

St. Clair Flats 198 

An Help Meet 200 

Keeping Watch 201 

Enforced Idleness 203 

Resurrection 205 

Some Shadows 208 

The World Suits Me 209 

The Lost Art 210 

The History of Crime 21 1 

Temptations 214 

A Ruined Flower 215 

The Judgment 216 

The Steamer China 219 

The Wrecker 220 

A Lament 227 

Jennie and I 228 

The Way it Was Done 229 

A Summer Girl 230 

19 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Kisses 230 

The Power of a Human Life 231 

Among the Hills 233 

Lilies of the Valley 234 

Immortality 235 

The Result 236 

The Simple Life 236 

To Samuel Sprecker, D. D., LL.D 237 

Our Masters 238 

The Oratorio of Nature 239 

All the Ways O' Life Are Good 240 

Obscurity 241 

Antagonisms 241 

The Wind and the Pines 242 

Seen by the Way 243 

Niagara 244 

The Upward Struggle 244 

The Columbia River 245 

To Whom Do You Bow? 245 

Plenty of Room 246 

Christmas Time 247 

All Are Tramps 248 

The Promise 249 

Christmas Thoughts 250 

The Voice of Nature 251 

Sing On 251 

Naples 253 



13 



POEMS 



THE CERTAINTIES BEYOND 

Just as of old the years are drifting on! 
Death follows birth, as night the day. 
Each generation dead, looked for the dawn 
Which breaks at last upon the land of Hope, 
Believed it near — then passed away. 
Faith came to earth, abides on earth, 
Ever anew lights all the paths of life, 
That lead to promises that wait fulfillment. 
Great truths, for which our spirits yearn 
Obscured as yet, by doubts that hinder sight. 

LAKE CLEAR 

{Adtrondacksj New York) 

Often before my eyes I see 

A vision sweet and dear to me, 

A fountain spot in memory. 

Lake Clear with all its coolness lies 
Hemmed in with mountains, soft, blue skies, 
Fresh fringed with summer draperies. 

Far in thy crystal depths I see 

Stars stagger in light revelry 

When night winds wanton over thee. 

Strange hillside tongues I hear repeat 
Each sound that rolls beyond my feet, 
'Till seven echoes are complete. 

Beneath my steps I hear again, 
Earth's crust, with hollowness complain 
Like Elfin sounds beside some main. 

Angling for trout, like Walton old, 
17 



Along thy inlets icy cold, 
Burns-like admire their spots of gold. 

The day declines and near thy shore 
Batrachians call to sport galore 
Again, I bag a good three score. 

Thus, memory blest — I evermore, 
With friends enjoy glad days of yore 
With Otis, by thy charming shore. 

FLIGHTS OF CUPID 

Out of the hitherward, into the yon 

Love is ever trailing; 
The hearts are happy that love lights on, 

O, would to my heart he were sailing. 

Butterfly-like he comes and goes 

Visiting every mart 
Here fed on the daintiest bliss earth knows 

There wrecked in some passionate heart. 

On highest and lowest mundane lives. 

He favors and kisses bestows. 
Regardless of color and beauty he thrives; 

Life in hovel and palace he knows. 

The butterfly's home is the perfect rose, 
Where sweetest nectar is found 

So the heart you see must sincere be 
Which love calls holy ground. 

SUNRISE AT SEA 

Out of the startled east 
On the billowy breast of the sea 
Morning dropped through a sparkling mist 
i8 



That jeweled the world for me. 

Night's grimness fled away 

As the water mirrored the sun 

And ripples of laughter ran riot in play 

'Till the whole sea frolicked in fun. 

And I said; I behold, O, sea! 

Your temper is not so bad ; 

At peace with storms you smile like me 

When the sun shines sweet and glad. 

O, wonderful lessons of dawn! 

Will surroundmgs change us so? 

When each in judgment stands, 

Will the whiteness of the Great White Throne 

Make whiter our earthstained hands? 

THE LOVERS 

By joyous streams thru orange groves, 

Two lovers strayed together; 

'Twas eventide, out peeped the moon 

In autumn's glorious weather. 

He held her gently by the hand, 

He kissed her red lips lightly 

They sang and laughed and talked of love, 

As lovers yet do nightly. 

Sub-Tropic suns had filled their hearts 

With pleasure's sparkling wine, 

Kind nature gave them every grace 

Greek-Myths accord the nine. 

The nightingale whose happy song. 

Unfinished with the day. 

Poured only one of all glad strains 

That swelled about their way. 

In full accord is moon and tide, 
19 



World energies are with them, 
So love and nature are in bonds, 
Potential laws unite them. 
O, happy hearts in youthful prime, 
Brimful of dreams of pleasure, 
Adrift upon the stream of time 
In rythmic sweetest measure. 
O, youth thy current is a rill, 
O, life thy stream's a river 
What argosies of good and ill 
Thou dost to age deliver. 

MEN OF ACTION 

When I think of the great ones of earth 

And the wonderful things they could do 

Fighting, writing and loving. 

Getting and giving too; 

How little seems the millions, 

How big the unit or two. 

When I think of the golden opinions 

They won from women and men, 

I'm glad there's but one in a million, 

Instead of a possible ten. 

But ever this painful question 

Is present with me, with you. 

Why should such vast power 

Be given to one or two? 

For we have hearts for loving, 

Have hands for giving too; 

But we lack the art of getting 

And fighting we cannot do. 

So we lose the golden opinions 

That strength receives for dower, 

Since the trumpets of the ages. 

Blow only for place and power. 

And so the impoverished millions 

That constitute the state 

20 



Are as only ready material 

For the buildings of the great; 

And the history of a nation 

Is the biography of the few 

Who simply plan for the millions, 

Enormous work to do. 

It was so with the nations perished, 

It is so with the present day; 

The masses always labored 

But their honors, where are they? 

I am glad in that better judgment 

They will call us one by one 

And know us by what we purposed 

Rather than what we have done. 

Who declared in the Jewish Temple 

When massive gifts were told 

That the humble gift of the widow's mite 

Was more than the rich man's gold 

Will in no wise err in His judgment. 

Of the humble or the great. 

For He noteth the fall of a sparrow 

As well as the potentate. 



THE YOUNG MAID'S SOLILOQUY 

To whom can I go for counsel? 
I know I can go to the Lord, 
But at times we need help that is human, 
From our fellows a comforting word. 
So young, (for as yet I'm not twenty) 
Unschooled in the world and it's ways 
Of society friends I have plenty 
Insincere and conventional jays. 
The ball room is giddy and flirty — 
Society's heartless and queer 
I long for a friend that is hearty 
For a love in the flesh that's sincere. 
21 



In pairs, male and female created, 

O, where can my partner have strayed, 

Shall I find him, why so long belated. 

Are we distant, was love sightless made? 

About me how swiftly they marry 

"Bound to discord and strife" it is said; 

How long on the way will he tarry 

The man, whom I am to wed? 

An actor? no, such would deceive me; 

Free from guile and deceit is my heart 

Let him show me his soul, let him know me, 

Undeceived then, we never shall part. 

I know not myself, wise counsel I need 
To preserve the sweet joys of the heart; 
A mistake to regret and ruin may lead, 
Experience should wisdom impart. 
Every trade has its guilds and teachers. 
Social warnings and lectures refined ; 
For hereafter a book with its preachers, 
Marriage oft is a chance taken blind. 
O, mothers your daughters need training, 
E're they wifehood and motherhood meet; 
O, fathers your sons need teaching 
To make manly roughness more sweet. 

If the savage consort with the tender. 
There'll be friction and torture refined; 
Why not grow brides and grooms for each other 
Strong bodied and suited in mind? 
Dogs, pigeons and stock are fostered. 
Each pedigree guarded with care; 
While chance fathers children unheeded. 
Whose lives run to waste everywhere. 
Yet man, boastful chief of creation, 
Chases everything under the sun; 
A savage on earth on probation, 
A savage calls cruelty fun. 
22 



Wise Sparta grew soldiers and mothers, 

Women suited for warriors' wives. 

Why not grow brides and grooms for each other 

Cheating chance out of spoiling two lives. 

I long for a husband true, human, 

Yet, a man flesh and soul must he be — 

Two natures have I, I am woman, 

Daily food for both natures give me. 

WHO CAN ANSWER? 

Can any one go back to God and say, 
I kept the inner chart thou gavest me, 
Conscience inviolate, all acts approved, 
Within the limits of thy plan I lived? 
Since I awoke on earth, I know my story. 
The strength of evil has shivered many 
A stout lance of boasted virtue. 
This web of life was braided of light 
And shadow in that great night, before 
I met the fitful dawn of days. 
I know not if I lived or dreamed 
Before I came to earth. 
Since launched upon the stream of time 
I've steered by hope and faith. 
And love, whose eyes presage another dawn, 
When earth shall own no grave. 

WATCHMAN! WHAT OF THE TIMES? 

The gates of life swing wider now. 

Great days are ushered in. 

Earth's shadows lift — 

Light clears the brow 

As truth's great world is seen. 

No kingdom may we call our own 
Till reverent reason dawns. 
23 



wisdom must mystery disown 
And duties paths make plain 
E're real days begin. 

SHELF MARKED 

In our looms of daily thought 
Is life's many patterns wrought. 
Daily schooling, drill and plan 
Mark some character of man. 
Politics and party strife 
Weave the bias goods of life. 
Every trade, profession, clan, 
Stamps, impresses, labels man 
Each with some reproach per se 
Peter thy speech betrayeth thee. 
It is sadly true of every one 
Who's smaller than the job he's on. 

CAPTIVES HERE, FREEMEN OVER 
THERE 

I walk with nature hand in hand 
My country is the favored land 

Of mirth and song, 
Bold, lion hearted, eagle winged 
The freeman's soul is fain to sing 

The heart's desire. 

Wisdom's a sun whose clearing light 
Scatters life's doubts and shades of night 

As men mount higher. 
Desires are wings to wingless men, 
To speed them to earth journey's end 

With souls on fire. 



24 



UNDER LAW 

Noiseless, mighty as God's will, 
Sunlight falls on vale and hill, 
Earth feels resurrection power, 
Nature wakens tree and flower. 

Man, central thought of nature's plan, 
Immortal souled, flesh life a span. 
Ever ascending fears no bound. 
Life's outmost peaks are wisdom crowned. 



SHE TOLD HER LOVE 

The night wind sweet and cool 

Is fanning my fevered brow, 

She has told her love 

To the roving wind 

And the wind is telling me now. 

My heart is full of bliss, 

My thoughts are wild with joy, 

She has told her love 

To the roving wind. 

Her love, so shy and coy. 

The heavens are soft with light. 

Bright stars and great round moon. 

Though sundered afar 

Her spirit is near 

My Soul's in a blissful swoon. 

Sweet fragrance is on the air. 
The earth with bloom is bright, 
For love, sweet love's 
On the roving wind. 
Our souls have met tonight. 
25 



THE CALL TO DUTY 

A voice is in my ear, 
That melts my heart; 
To scenes far off and dear 
It calls me and I start 
To tread the past again 
The paths sweet, simple, plain. 



BEYOND THE STARS 

Once I loved and life 
Was rosy with its light 
Streams of bliss poured in 
Upon me day and night. 

Lofty aspirations filled me 
Toil and sorrow hid away, 
Great achievements filled my future 
Life's best joy ruled each day. 

Dreams of life lay bright before me, 
Fields of promise rich and wide. 
Hand in hand through paths of glory, 
Love and hope led groom and bride. 

But my vision paled and wasted. 
Left a great pain in my heart, 
Ever since death's surly winter 
Chills my soul; will not depart. 

See a pale face floats before me, 
Laughter dead upon its lips. 
And life's hopes are broken, shattered, 
Wrecked and lost like stately ships. 

Yet my soul on Petrel pinions, 
26 



Soars 'bove storms and broken spars, 
Joy life's quest shall gain fruition 
In love's home beyond the stars. 

SEEKING WISDOM 

The ghosts of the wisdom of Egypt of old, 
Rise dim in her ruins, a story well told. 
The splendor of Athens where brains had a mart, 
Lives a dream of the past in legend and art. 
Thinkers, great swordsmen carved out mighty Rome 
What is left of her grandeur save ruin and gloom? 
From greatest to least man immortal would be 
In thought, word and act, quite plainly we see. 
Old nations warred, toiled to put error to rout. 
Erred, reformed, reformed 'till toil wore them out. 
Crumbs of truth, flakes of wisdom are all we find 
Any nation or man after life left behind. 
Though earnest the struggle, the end well defined; 
Aims fail of their purpose spite of muscle and mind. 

It is true, clearly true redeemed from all doubt 
There's a limit on earth to what man brings about. 
With thoughts half mastered we labor in vain — 
Discouraged to others at last turn for gain. 
Thus we resort the thoughts born in the brain 
Of the dead of past ages, ever seeking their aim. 
Our wealth's but collections, specimens parts 
Of man's boasted find in the field of lost arts. 
Aye, we love simple things because they are best, 
Laugh at artless child wit with heartiest zest. 
There's no songs like heart songs, old or new, 
Truth never grows old, the immortal is true. 



27 



The streams of affection that visit man's heart 
Are as pure and fresh as they were at the start. 
Man never grows old while his brain and his heart, 
Are fed by the currents of love, wisdom and art. 
Some factors are constant then, plainly we see; 
To life on this planet law limits each me. 
Much is false, short lived, sinks into the mould. 
Like flowers and buds killed by autumn winds cold. 
We consider life's waste, then shrink into doubt. 
Lest the world may not prize what we think about. 
Original truth is more precious than gold. 
Than pearls is harder to find 

No realm in the aggregate shows such wanton waste 
As the efforts of heart and mind. 

Truth needs no interpreter, yet history shows 
It's no sooner revealed than commentators disclose 
The wise things and learning (which we are told) 
Throws light on it, making it clear to behold. 
The result is discussion, faction and strife 
With creed fostering clans ever injuring life. 
Only wisdom baptized at the fountain of truth 
Holds its own in this world, has perennial youth. 
Get learning, get wisdom, get all that you can, 
Science wards not fate's storms 
From the creature called man. 



INVOCATION 

I pray not for stateliest power 
To speak, write or sing like the few 
Who o'erleap this low world with its sorrow 
And stage through the infinite blue. 
While here on earth's restless bosom 
Where thy creatures forever make moan. 
Let me serve e'en the humblest blossom 
Assured thou the service will own. 
28 



Let me sing as one sang to "A Mousie" 
Let thy ''Daisies" so speak to me too 
Let me see, let me hear nature's voice 
Back of all let me see and hear you. 
Add strength to each frail, fleeting power ; 
Each day some new joy, please to give 
Make feet, hands, swift skilled for service; 
A true man in the flesh let me live. 

To my hopes ever add a new luster. 
Make each promise more clear to my sight ; 
Mists of doubt and uncertainty scatter 
Ever lead me from darkness to light. 
Make solid the shores of that country 
Like this, we are journeying thru; 
Men are weak in their ankles and stumble, 
Speak, courage and strength give me too. 

In the span which to me is allotted 
In the paths where I walk, slip or fall, 
Help me find out and ponder life's meaning, 
Gain wisdom and wait for Thy call. 
Though my life may be simple and humble 
Though my name and my grave be obscure 
May the lives I have touched remember 
A friend and a brother passed here. 

MESSENGERS OF THE BRAIN 

Beautiful thoughts they come and go, 
Like childhood friends in the long ago. 
From flights in space they visit the brain. 
Perch, take wing and return again. 
They visit the sun that warms the earth 
Drink at the fountains of hope and mirth. 
Our darkest dungeons they fill with light; 
From heaviest hearts they chase the night. 
Receive them kindly, they are sent to be 
29 



Ministering angels of good to thee. 

They clothe the soul as with ermine white, 

In garments of grace from the looms of right, 

And at last, the soul by their power, is 

Transfigured into immortal bliss. 

"As man thinks in his heart so is he," 

Thought is the parent of destiny. 

KNOWN BY WHAT WE HAVE DONE 

No candle burns however pale its light 
But helps to brighten earth's receding night. 
When passed is superstition, doubt and fear, 
Truth gained, the mind shall be more clear! 
Diviner life slowly asserts its reign, 
Comfort, O Soul, good efforts are not vain. 

CREED AND PERSECUTION 

A traveler in a thirsty land 

A little pool of water found 

It slumbered sweetly, crystal clear. 

For sheltering rocks rose all around. 

He took his staff and stirred the pool. 

Lol soon 'twas foul and turbid too, 

Where sun and stars once glassed themselves 

No eye could now its murk see thru. 

Seized by an angry dervish mob 

The traveler to the judge was led 

Charged with pollution of the pool; 

He unabashed, "Not guilty!" plead. 

The witnesses were called and sworn 

And swiftly fixed on him the guilt. 

Told how the pool was clear at morn, 

And how accused corrupted it. 

With placid mien the traveler heard 
The proven penalty of guilt 
30 



Who so corrupts a drinking place 
Shall forfeit life, his blood be spilt. 
The judge was patient, just and kind, 
Assured the traveler firmly spake — 
I thrust this staf¥ deep in the pool 
But ivory naught can filthy make. 
The sides the bottom of the pool 
Were thick w^ith mud and dregs of time 
On which the crystal water lay 
Till action made all foul with grime. 
Just like the fountain creeds of men 
In reason's cup deemed sweet, pure, plain, 
Revered for ages, held undoubtingly 
None dreaming of the dregs therein. 

At last a greater teacher comes, 

Of mightier faith, simple, more wise. 

Opens new fountains in the fields of truth 

Lo, turbid are the wells men used to prize; 

Impurity has not been introduced 

A wisdom higher, broader but revealed — 

A clearer light to the same eyes if used 

Shows old deformities before concealed. 

Within yon pool the waters you deem sweet 

Lay clear and clean, were pure to taste to sight, 

I naught polluted, I questioned what I met; 

Lo! to your dervishes — I changed the light. 

Ignorance aroused, leads persecution 

Raging as if wronged — not that the new 

Is not better, but because the old betrays 

Its grime and imperfections too. 

Ignorance, superstition poured a bitter tide 

Of persecution into faith's sheltered pool ; 

Then, being weary, left hate and jealousy 



31 



To precipitate the cruel dregs, 

Of passion's narrow school. 

The holiest faith is kept in earthen vessels 

And undisturbed by bigotry is clear and sweet, — 

Like mud-rimmed quiet wayside puddle 

Reflecting sun and starry heavens complete. 

But he who looks when Huguenots are fleeing 

Sees faith's pure pool begrimed with passion's dirt 

And knows that zealot persecution pursues 

The innocents to do them hurt. 

And yet, the fiercest creed mankind doth own 

If to its altars all will come, bow down; 

Each creed is broad enough (in its own way) 

To save the vilest who will own its sway. 

No broader charity our race can boast 

Than shows in creed, each calls O, human host 

Accept our faith — take seat among the blest! 

Earth's vilest penitent need not be lost. 

BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL 

Why can't people all be good, 
Kind and sweet in every mood? 
Aye they could be if they would. 
Love and justice helps us all, 
Least and greatest, short and tall 
Why laugh at a neighbor's fall ? 

Over heavy is many a load, 
Slight and jest wield bitter goad, 
Why not give each half the road? 
Earth is roomy, life is sweet. 
Cruel hearts are incomplete 
Mercy show to all you meet. 

One heart's product, who can know? 
Tares and wheat In one soil grow, 

L. 32 i 



Only wheat then let us sow. 
Getting gain is not all of life; 
Nothing sweet results from strife; 
Death is combat knife to knife. 

Look and word and simplest act, 
Life's result, a sum exact. 
Helpful, hurtful, what is the fact? 
There is good enough in every heart 
If encouraged from the start. 
To outweigh life's bitter part. 
Let us then with candor live, 
Learn to take as well as give, 
Live and help our neighbor live. 



THE CENTRAL MIND 

I was restless, eager, strong in my youth ; 

Fully determined fame to win and ultimate truth. 

Truth, I often thought I had it; 

Firmly grasped and held secure. 

But how soon it lost its luster; 

Changed its form and essence pure; 

Played Chameleon, lastly vanished, 

Broke my heart and left no cure; 

While through nature, truth I hunted to secure. 

But the reason I discovered, if traced back 

Truth through nature is distorted, 'tis a fact 

In the sun each man must stand, 

If he'd see the solar system rightly planned. 

So too, each mind must find the central mind ; 

In God must rest. 

Before he sees Truth's living fields 

In order dressed. 
God central sun of soul and mind 

Throws light upon 
The human mind and is its sun. 
33 



WHEN I GET HOME 

Once I was there and baby skies 

Covered the whole circle of my life. 

I lived on love; care 

Answered all my cries 

And shut away earth's bitterness and strife. 

Manhood soon came, 

I heard the call to come 

And join the fray the world forever fights. 

The trump of fame 

First heard is welcome, 
Though it blows for paltry rights. 

Ambition plants her seedlings 

In our fresh young blood, 

To choke and cheapen everything that fails; 

It humble- and narrows the dwellings 

Known in childhood, 
And on age a backward longing it entails. 

I sigh for faces 

Full of sweetest light, 
That cheered me once, as morning cheers the land 

Warm hearts, bright faces 

Now beyond my sight. 
While I alone twixt hope and memory stand. 

Cheated and wasted 

By life's feverish haste, 
I've reaped few harvests in the lengthened past, 
Faith points my eyes where final rights are vested 
In fadeless faces and in friends that last. 

When I get home, O, haste the happy day. 
Restore my loved ones to my waiting heart. 
Flesh awkwardness 

34 



Mars all we do or say 
Where, wrapped in shadows, life is lived apart. 

When I get home 

And know as I am known, 
Earth's dark glass broken and the dimness gone, 

Faults all condoned, 

Full confidence enthroned ; 
I shall be satisfied when I get home. 

MAN WAS NOT MADE TO MOURN 

I garner no care and I borrow no sorrow; 
Why should I burden myself with pain? 
Life was meant to be sweet, a dream of pleasure ; 
Happy day, each tomorrow should bring again. 

Why should men struggle and toil for treasure 
That cankers life's cares, eroding the brain? 
Man's physical needs tho many are simple. 
Let us joy in the sunshine, rejoice in the rain. 

Why fret and jostle and crowd each other 
Through each week and each month of the year 
To gain a few baubles, some gold hoard away. 
Then to die sour hearted in fear. 

There is plenty of sunshine to go around and spare 
And earth's fresh air is forty miles deep 
Of seed time and harvest the maker takes care. 
Life's provisions are bountiful, cheap. 

To wear out or rust out, man never was meant, 
By his talents most clear may be seen; 
Life in leisure, in labor and study, if spent 
Gains health, wealth, beauty, wit keen. 

All nature the flowers, the birds and the bees 
35 



Adapt life to climate with gracefuUest ease; 
Change of season to man is a boon, you will own, 
Spicing life with a zest in each different zone. 

Monotony only occurs where a man 
Looks exclusively long on, but part of a plan, 
The mountains and valleys, the plain and the sea. 
Days of storm, nights of stars, are variety's plea. 

Man may look out on nature and revel in love ; 
Or if nature's o'er cast, he may visit above ; 
May choose like flowers the dew and the light; 
But it never was meant, he should sink into night. 

The soul grows in winter as well as in summer, 
Mid absence of flowers and joyous song, 
Life was meant to be lived without fret or murmur. 
Night, day, rest, action make it grow strong. 

Then why garner care and why borrow sorrow? 
Why should we burden ourselves with pain ? 
Life was meant to be sweet, a dream of pleasure, 
Happy day, each tomorrow should bring again! 

OLD AND NEW 

I have often thought 
I should like to speak 
And give the people my views. 
But a present fear 
Ever held me in check. 
The fear it might not be news. 
Or be error, instead of the truth. 
For the worthiest scientist, 
Learned as he is, fathers 
Many a dictum that's false; 
The philosopher's logic frequently is 
More worthless than dumpings of dross. 
3b 



Even wise schoolmen's teachings, 

Great thoughts in their way 

Are mortal as plainly we see. 

They perish as fashion, fads of a day. 

Short lived, lacking merit to stay. 

Unnumbered the books. 

Dead, thrown aside, 

Crowded out by the latest, the true. 

That suffer decay as leaves of the wood 

To be followed again by the new. 

Life, continuing problem, new to old. 

Develops by action, hearing things told. 

It must be so, infant born and taught. 

Experience gained, hard struggles fought, 

Earth's passing sons will buffet and praise 

The fads of fashion, man's labor and plays; 

For growth each has room, each room for his say, 

A crown waits on worth at the end of each day. 

AFTER THE NUPTIALS 

On my face friends say there's a shadow. 

In my heart I know there's an ache 
So young, scarcely out of my mayday, 

Sure to grief life is early awake. 

A haze dims at times the eyes seeing 

From the vale of the heart, mists of pain 

Hang over the soul, as in summer 

On mountains clouds gather and rain. 

So late life was brimful of pleasure, 
My soul bathed in hope at high tide ; 

Disappointment has changed the sweet measure 
Love died, when I knew him as bride. 

The law says we are one, two a unit. 
So unlike, is it submission or strife? 
37 



Trees in winter live on — can that be it, 
Only winter the rest of my life? 

No! No! I will smile in his absence 
Will sing till my heart's summer glad ; 

Self-conquered will then, bear his presence, 
He surely is not wholly bad. 

He has faults, many faults, am I perfect? 

No ! our schooling's been equally bad 
The dainty, the timid are apt to expect 

Too much from the average grown lad. 

After fame, merged in business, strong 

And self-willed the lord of creation, a man, 

To further his purpose drives things along 
Unmindful of aught save his plan. 

I will find the ideal his brain and his heart, 
Have enshrined in their innermost fold; 

I'll become what he thought me; the part 

Of his life, when he chose me, thought me pure 
gold. 

I'll conform to his wants as an animal should, 
He reigning husband, I will reign wife; 

Mind matching mind, our world shall be ruled 
With no servile descent to the low plain of strife. 

Our faults and virtues shall common appear 
'Till faults are evolved from physical life 

Then neither need reign, or prate about sphere ; 
For he shall be husband and I shall be wife. 



38 



THE UBIQUITY AND WASTE OF LIFE 

God sows the earth with human life, 

As a farmer broadcasts grain, 
Each struggles to'ard the end of strife, 
Thru sunshine, storm and rain. 

The seed may drop in goodly soil, 

Or fall by the wayside bare, 
May feed the birds, or blight may spoil 

Or fruit for the kings own fare. 

So man is dropped in every zone 

On island, land and sea 
But if he grows, must win a home 

For self and family. 

Igloo, Tepee or Manor Hall 

May house a babe at birth , 
That lives to age or dies in youth. 

Worthless or full of worth. 

Wide is the waste where'er the eye 

Earth's fields of life discern, 
Wise fostering care and cruel waste 

Law rules with unconcern. 

Sweet over all abounding grace 

And tender love is shown. 
His plan includes the human race 

Aim high and reach a throne. 



THE TOILER 

How monotonous, common and little 
Most lives on this planet have been. 
Did we live before we came hither, 
39 



Will a fuller life ever begin ? 
Around all the people seem common 
Are alike as the days and the years 
Hard toilers on levels low, human, 
Dowered equal with joys and fears. 

Great statesmen all live at a distance, 
Great authors are all bound in books. 
The soul has a scant, hard existence, 
There is sameness in clothing and looks. 
Sun to sun is the measure of labor 
For shelter and three meals a day 
An evening sometimes with a neighbor 
Rest and pleasure are scanty, our way. 

Life and state questions all come to us, 
Perplex us and harry us too, 
It's this way and that way schools teach us 
False theories outnumber the true. 
We toil, we achieve, we are victors. 
Life goes on with its clatter and grind 
Rejoice, no toiler is hopeless. 
Conscious greatness in effort all find. 

Few questions in this world are settled, 
To be answered, they come day by day. 
From each is an answer expected 
To the questions we face on our way. 
We toil we achieve we are victors — 
Unknown and nameless quite true — 
Like the soldiers of old, the king's lictors; 
Mostly nameless — fame fathers so few. 

The tasks of the world are heavy 
Cruel masters are numerous too; 
The life of each toiler's made dreary 
With a task that will never be through. 
We delve and we toil for the nation ! 
40 



For the people dig graves and plant yew. 
Few, few roll in wealth, have position, 
Strange, the mass ever shouts for the few. 

Great leaders of men have their frailties 
The mass blindly follows the few 
Often hid by a mask, the real face is, 
Actors oft make the false seem the true. 
So blindly we toil, trust and follow, 
While the spoils are shared by the few 
We murmur, we toil, yet are victors, 
Are victors in spite of the few. 

GOD WALKS EVERY SEA 

With the prow of my ship 
Toward the land of Hope 

I shall sail and sail 
But ever the far away 
Recedes, to land I fail 
Yet my heart keeps stout 
With the love I meet 

As I go on. 
Earth's evenings and mornings 
Ever are sweet to look upon. 

Though real our dreams 
May never become 

Let us murmur not. 
God's daily gifts for us 
Are best, though we choose not. 
Though in fancy's ships we drift 
Afar, far out on some 

Uncrossed sea; 
From love and care we can never 
Be lost for, God walks every sea. 



41 



SPIRIT HOSPITALITY 

A soul was host to my soul one day, 

At a Royal Feast of thought, the whole 

Sweet, delicate, pure as the truths 

The Incarnate teacher taught. 

Our lamps of life in heart, in brain burn bright, 

Like light revealing sun and stars, to common sight, 

Warming this chill earth where we live 

Till sometimes it is blossom bright. 

The feast was royal, yet simply served ; 

No show or clatter of plate observed ; 

Mind's native products of fruit and bread. 

From experience and larder of learning were spread. 

The courses each, were of facts the best. 

Gleanings of discontent and rest 

From highest down to simplest. 

Our consomme, broth of joys that die 

When youth dreams visit no more life's sky. 

Stern truths were our meat, with hunger blest 

Garnished with wit the daintiest. 

Our pickles, mustard, and olives green 

Were the sour yield of what might have been. 

Wisdom the waitress, shy sweet maid. 

Served largess of pastries, none mislaid. 

Ripe berries of hope, by good will brought, 

Were served as dessert with the cream of thought. 

Our wine, heart vintage, the purest earth sees, 

(Such as never grows stale or sinks to the leas), 

Slaked our thirst, as some cool spring at dawn 

Refreshes the life of a hunter chased fawn. 

It was June, sweet season of leaf and bloom. 
Rare beauty graced all that was said ; 
Life fragrance sent up its sacred perfume, 
At this feast of the heart and the head. 
We talked of the past, of paths we had trod, 
42 



Of hope and defeat, of the great love of God, 
Of birth and life's ultimate goal, 
Of dreams of the future ; the slow growth of good ; 
The perils of living ; the tides in the blood ; 
Speech blossomed like prayer in each soul. 
In bodies Plebeian here, royal souls reign, 
Yet ancestry of spirit in this life shows plain. 
Flesh at times feels the power of glory to come — 
Beauty of holiness smites sometimes each home. 

A LOST FRIEND 

I would wreathe my cup of sorrow today, 

O, bring me an evergreen bough ; 
Tho love lights my soul with beautiful ray 

Yet I weep o'er a lost friend now. 

I know each cup must be drained some day 
To the bottom, so bitter and black, 

The sorrows of life are tapers they say, 
Hope lights when the lost comes back. 

My life was full of the beautiful, 

Till I lost thy sweet face from my sky, 

Now silent and still I wonder at will 

And the empty world whispers, why? why? 



TO A PRUDE 

Are you waiting, are you waiting. 
Are your sweet lips yet unkissed. 

Are you still love's promise keeping 
Are you faithful to your tryst? 

Swift the long years have been flying 
Graying hair and dimming sight; 
Is your heart in silence crying, 
43 



Will my true love come tonight? 

Faultless man and perfect lover 
You demanded in your youth 

Men are clay the whole world over 
None are perfect, sad the truth. 

Day to day a sweet speech utters, 
Night to night doth knowledge show 

Life is fleeting, you're in fetters 
To a folly fast or slow. 

This is earth — beyond is heaven! 

Live this life the earthly way, 
Loyal to it don't abuse it 

Wisdom clothes each soul in clay. 

Patient wait till you reach heaven 
The spirit place prepared for you 

Pure soul air, flesh cannot breathe it 
Why spoil this and that life too ? 

Patient learn earth's common lessons, 

Duty daily waits on you. 
Finish earth tasks, go to heaven. 

When you've nothing else to do. 



THOUGHTS ON CREATION 

{After Reading Hugh Millers Works) 

Some thinkers who were doubters, 
Others, mighty men of faith, 
Through geologic wonders 
Each blazed a several path. 
Some marveled at creation, 

44 ( 



Christened Nature, Child of Time, 
Faith shouted to the end of ways, 
Earth's Maker is Divine! 

It must be so, whate'er befell, 
Creation was a miracle. 
Fully recorded — note the fact — 
The record's equal to the act. 
In rocky volumes fold on fold. 
Thru centuries igneous, vaporous, cold, 
A faithful record has been kept, 
Before man came and while he slept, 
In beetling clifF and rocky fold. 
We read the record clear and old. 
From tertiary to Silurian, 
From radiate Mollusk up to man. 
Earth's fauna-dawn marked by a star; 
Of starry type first creatures were. 
Not chance — this star in Nature's plan, 
Star blazoned came the Son of Man; 
For not alone in shales and mould, 
In glacial beds and bogs that hold 
Great coal deposits; slaty fold; 
In bones and caves, and finds of old 
Is creation's story told. 

The night of chaos heard the living word, 
"Let there be light!" It was the Lord. 
The primal elements. Law gript at birth. 
Creation staggered not in coming forth. 
Order established, the whole plan defined, 
In unions primal elements combined. 
Each simple factor was an agent sent 
To do his will, accomplish his intent. 
To each its duty wisdom preassigned, 
His voice its law, from atom to mankind. 
Man, favored one, created with a mind. 
Law unto self, above earth's common kind. 
45 



From lowest cell, up, up, pray scan 

A flawless wisdom marks the plan ; 

No breaks, no leaps, no chasms wide, 

No unbridged gulfs have been descried 

Along the long creative way 

From formless night to finished day. 

Simple to complex, rising yet, 

A gradient scale doth upward set, 

Broad, perfect plans from base to top, 

Creation widens grandly, moving up. 

It starts with chaos and ascends, 

But no man knoweth where it ends. 

For earth is but a little world 

'Mongst countless planets orbit hurled. 

Man on probation ever restless here, 

His spirit thirsting for some other sphere. 

Verdure with thallogens begins 

Ending with forest exogens. 

From radiates on, past quadrupeds. 

Each kingdom filled with wondrous breeds, 

From living atoms to vast saurians, 

Each in its order came, and followed on 

Enriched from work by predecessors done. 

Tho some place microbes under ban. 

Asserting they were made to injure man. 

Instinct unerring — if you please — 

Wild natures follow, none deceives. 

No error marks the Maker's plan. 

At least before creating man. 

Man came with hope and inspiration, 
The crowning creature of creation. 
Free to ascend to heights divine 
Or herd below as common kine. 
Birds build their nests, nor reason why. 
Build perfect first time — never try 
To improve the comfort or the health 
Nor theorize on style or wealth, 

46 



With native sense of sanitation 
They need no tips from civilization. 
They do not toil, just build and sing, 
Untroubled about nest or song; 
Their impulse is the joy of spring, 
Nature's great heart beats kind and strong. 
No sullen worker mars the throng. 
Man freely theorizes this or that, 
Toils and destroys, destroys and builds, 
To attain the perfect labors, wills. 
Tries theory this and theory that, 
Till courage fails or reason wins. 
Chooses, discards — is child of doubt — 
Dreams of a life to be fairer than this ; 
Refuses present joy for next life's bliss. 
He studies Nature to find Heaven out. 
Marching life's pathway thru creation, still 
Leads to the temple of love's sovereign will. 

O, searcher after truth, move up, move on 

Until life's goal is gained, 

Hope's promise seldom comes to naught 

When every nerve is strained. 

Endowed with trust and earnest faith 

That we shall live beyond earth's death ; 

To make for sin some expiation, 

What toils we do, what pains we bear, 

Heedless our loss of pleasure here. 

Aspiring to some other sphere 

Where life, that here owns scarce a day 

Goes on forever — spurns decay. 

Man toils and troubles from his birth 

A painful worker on the earth ; 

Bold critic, questioner of creation, 

Proud boaster of a civilization 

Oft retrogression marks his way, 

Tho forward striving hard to go, 



47 



With soul unrest he's troubled so — 

About some future state, it is true, 

If death ends all, he cannot enter into. 

Expectant one, sad, sad 'twill be 

If life hereafter's not for thee. 

If prayer's unheard; if faith's a lie; 

Mission's a failure ; hope a cry. 

What toil, forethought, and preparation 

Goes waste, if vain is expectation 

About one's self, and every nation. 

Such loss makes loss an aggregation 

Too painful for just contemplation. 

Shall God keep faith with other creatures 
And not with man who bears his features ? 
Shall bee and dormouse lay in store 
Supplies if winter comes no more? 
Instinct or reason — ^just the same — 
Both from one common author came. 

THE GOOD IS ALWAYS IN SIGHT 

The stream of trouble runs always full. 

Its current flows deep and wide. 

Life's good, life's evil, are the banks 

That lie on either side. 

Adrift on the current or stranded in ill, 

Whenever you long for the right, 

Lift your eyes and look to the other bank, 

The good is always in sight. 



48 



THOU SPEAKEST TO ME 

When truth breaks in the quickened conscience 

starts, 
Dear Lord, thou dwellest in believing hearts; 
Thou speakest to me. 

Thru spirit, nature, sun and stars apart. 
Thru life in death, thy lessons reach the heart, 
Thou speakest to me. 

Above the roar of life, thy voice still and small 
Visits each conscience with potential call; 
Arise, be free, O, child of God! 
Thy father speaks to thee. 



ARCTIC LOVERS 

As the needle seeks the pole 
So in love soul seeketh soul. 
Across the white wide waste of snow 
The wild wind sobbing went 
While pallid stars to cheer the night 
Thru silent space their ghostly light 
On waste of ice, and wealth of snow 
In blinding dimness sent. 
With swift reindeer, all clad in fur 
His sweetheart bound to see; 
A fearless lover bold of heart 
Sped o'er an icelike sea. 

A distant light, (unseen as yet) 
Already cheered his heart 
For by it with a gentle face 
His sweetheart stood apart. 
Each felt life's ruddy current swell 
And of the other' thought; 
49 



Sweet telepathic messengers 
To each love's message brought. 
The auroral light in rosy beams 
Glowed as the dawn when near 
And like the Lark his heart awoke 
Love's song rose sweet and clear. 

"Wild is the trail over the snow 

My sweetheart's lodge doth my reindeer know. 

Winter hath locked in ice the streams; 

My heart is so warm with love, it seems 

The winter must go, the north-land streams 

In beauty shall flow like summer-land dreams. 

Melt treasures of snow, O, winds of the north 

Blow warm, break forth in zephyrs sweet and low; 

I am nearing my heart's desire 

Nearing my love I know. 

I am nearing her icy home — 

The gray wolf follows my heels 

Wild is the trail I roam 

No hunger no cold your lover feels: 

His courage is true and tried 

And his heart grows warm 

As he nears his bride. 

As the needle seeks the pole 

I seek my bride, my soul, 

My summer-soul in the north." 

He ceased; the song committed to air. 

She stood in her ice thatched home 

Smoothing her tresses of hair. 

She stood in her distant home 

Simple and sweet and meek 

The unheard song had come 

Thru leagues of wintry air. 

Its welcome glowed on her cheek, 

Its spell was thrilling her there. 

50 



"A soul touched mine" — she sighed, 
"Thoughts burn in my brain, burn my ear — 
Give words, sweet words, to my speech 
Is my lover afar or near? 
Yet his presence, no sense reveals." 

Thus a message of far away friends 

Spite of space conditions, one feels. 

Surprised, she paused a little space, 

Nor thought of her raven hair. 

Fresh roses bloomed on her face 

Unharmed by the wintry air. 

Then suddenly to'ard the South she turned 

The blinds removed a mite — 

Opened the rose-buds of her mouth 

And thus her song took flight. 

"My waiting is over — is over — 
My heart hunger soon will be past 
For my lover is coming, is coming. 
My lover is coming, at last. 
The North light is smiting the winter, 
Ice, snow, feel earth's heart beat at last. 
Strong currents of love in me center 
My lover is coming at last. 
I hear the wild wolf in the distance 
His reindeer like hope travels fast, 
All earth stirs with life's new existence 
My lover is coming at last. 
Joy, joy, my heart cannot measure 
No more kisses of love to the blast 
My senses all reel with sweet pleasure 
Returned is my lover at last." 

The two songs met upon the icy waste 
Fused and were one like spirits in embrace 
Scarce from her casement had the last note died 
Ere in his arms the lover held his bride. 
51 



SINGING BROOK 

{Idle-Wild — Indiana ) 

Go abroad — Where should we roam? 
Why search every foreign nook, 
When we have right here at home 
Nature's favored, singing brook. 
Between low hills it goes alone, 
Tuneful down its path of stone; 
While thrush on bush and lark on high 
Rapture proclaim to field and sky. 

Graceful willows guard thy banks; 
Modest wild flowers, rank on rank, 
Lift their dew-cups to the sun. 
Fragrance dowering music's run. 
While the red bird brings his song 
To the open, where the throng, 
Robins, wrens, song sparrows, meet 
To make spring's madrigals complete. 

Brimming like nature, here and there. 
Children catch gladness from the air; 
While age, recalling springtimes gone. 
Scans time's wide sky for signs of dawn. 
Run, brook, sing on! Pour all your trills, 
Stirring each heart till joy spills 
Thy nature songs in every ear. 
Winning our lives from doubt and fear. 



TRANSFIGURATION 

Daylight was dying beyond the dark clouds 

That skirted the western horizon. 

Which the sun made bright with glorious light 



52 



Beyond aught, I had ever set eyes on. 
Entranced and amazed, I saw as I gazed, 
Rough torn clouds transformed into splendor; 
I said in my heart, "The Good Lord be praised, 
For this lesson of which He is mentor." 
When our day ends on earth and we enter the night 
May the sin-clouds and chill mists that blind us, 
Like the sunset to night with a glorified light 
Transform things in beauty behind us. 

THE JOURNEY 

O'er stretches sweet of childhood days, 
Across the years of dream and haze, 
Through youth's wild ways I traveled on 
Toward reason and ambition's dawn. 

Through schools of learning on I went, 
On wisdom, fame and wealth intent. 
Toward love and ease and sweet content 

I journeyed on, 
Dreaming of heavenly blessings lent, 

When toil is done. 

I met the world, experience came; 
Mingled were voice of praise and blame 
Success and failure just the same. 
Rose gardens, battle fields of flame 
Life journeys on, sound foot or lame. 

Abraham went forth of old, we're told, 
Not knowing where he went. 
We travel too, like him of old. 
Dim conscious that we are sent. 

We journey on, though lights go out, 
Where paths are plain, or lost the route, 
With friends and foes, from vale to height, 
S3 



We journey toward the Infinite, 
Across the fleeting years we go, 
God made the world and willed it so. 

Voices unknown, unheard, control 
The subtle powers of heart and soul; 
Impelling forces lead us on. 
Forever toward some future dawn. 

The eye beholds no guiding star, 
Hope's continent lies ever far; 
Yet full of faith, I journey on 
Across earth's night, to meet the dawn. 

Life's cup of zest is never dry, 
Though time, desire, and senses fail, 
The stream that fills it heads on high. 
And toward that fount this life's the trail. 

So ever I look to the hills of hope, 
Whence the sunset glories burn, 
I shall there or beyond, find wider scope, 
I shall enter and never return. 



BE OF GOOD CHEER 

Why do we sob in flats. 
And wail in minor keys? 
Men with immortal hopes. 
Alone waste time on these, 
Sad comfort find in these. 

Repentance is unknown 
In Nature's wide domain, 
Man weeps, and man alone 
Courts sorrow, grief and pain; 
To sorrow turns for gain. 
54 



Nature for joy was made, 
Man fears even hope will fade. 
God's child, earth's highest made. 
Alone is doubt's low slave. 

Each dawn the air is full of song, 
All earth awakes to happy life, 
The west is full of glory 
When night gives rest from strife. 
There is no end to life. 



REMEMBERED 

Oft while dreary night is passing 
Thru the realms of silent space; 

I am musing, guarding, keeping, 

Memory watch for some sweet face. 

And at times from starlit spaces. 
Dreamlike floating from above; 

Greeting, beckoning, smiling faces. 
Strengthen, cheer me with their love. 

Friendship's faces, love's dear faces, 
Shrined within the Soul's embraces. 

Full of youth's immortal graces. 
Lost to earth's accustomed places. 

Joy, I know they still remember 

Trysts of earth and hearth stone ember; 
Wait our coming, lost loved faces 

From below, to soul embraces. 

What seems broken, lost and buried 

In life's night on earth; 
Lives redeemed, somewhere is cherished, 

All life's lovely things of worth. 
55 



DUAL LIVING 

We scatter frowns, we scatter smiles, 

Play hawk as well as dove; 
We curse, we praise, in cruel heedless ways 

We spoil both hate and love. 

The deeds we do, the words we say, 

Life's actions one and all, 
As on we go from day to day, 

Are mostly dwarfed and small. 

And yet at times the dullest eye 

In purest light swims round; 
And often mid life's commonplace, 

Sweet blooms of thought are found. 

The plainest face boasts sweetest charms 

If lighted from within; 
The hardest heart oft fruits in love 

Between great acts of sin. 

We call this good, we call that bad, 

Oft knowing both misnamed. 
Teach hearts a wider charity. 

Too frequently we are blamed. 

For right or wrong the standard waves; 

On which side do you train? 
Let's oftener take account of stock, 

And know our loss and gain. 

Cease to do evil as you can — 

Life's highest end's not pelf. 
Mankind will never be reformed 

'Till each reforms himself. 



56 



WHAT WILL THE ANSWER BE? 

In the shadows of the evening, 

When life shall near its end, 
Will your daily acts of living 

Give you sorrow then, my friend? 

Will our earth joys rise, accuse us, 

With a fevered heart's unrest. 
Or with patient love excusing, 

Make us think we did our best? 

Will friends regret they knew us 
When the past is turned to clay. 

That we shared our simple joys. 
Making glad life's passing day? 

Will some be grieved and sorry 

Who ranked you as a friend, 
When the now becomes a memory, 

Will they blame you or defend? 

Every word shall rise in judgment, 
Every act once done shall stand, 

Will they change from sweet to bitter 
As we near that other land? 

There intent will be the question 
That decides the right or wrong. 

Was the motive low or lofty. 

Was the purpose weak or strong? 

Was the reason choked with error, 
Was the conscience sent away. 

Or was life allowed its living 
In the proper human way? 



57 



Our influence is immortal! 

Serious each word and deed; 
And our souls are big, or little; 

According to our creed. 

We are human, yet immortal, 
While the soul is clothed in clay. 

We are God's and yet, we are mortal, 
Living cheaply every day. 

We can frame no answer squarely 
To life's questions, as they come, 

Sense and courage oft are lacking 
And we dodge our duties some. 

But I pray you tell me truly, 

That is, truly as you can. 
Will you blame me or defend me. 

When in judgment we shall stand? 

HEART TO HEART 

My heart is tender and sweet 

My eyes are moist with tears 

I bear the solicitude of love 

Sweet burden of questions and fears 

You cannot come to me, I cannot go to you 

For who can contravene life's law 

That veils the soul from view? 

Alone I feed on memories sweet 

And delicate hopes the soul's own meat 

That will keep me strong until we meet 

As lovers may on the crowded street 

To smile and pass, or stroll and talk, 

In meadow ways or woodland walk; 

When the heart may know and enjoy its own 

In rifts of barriers round life thrown. 

For one short hour is longer far 

Lived soul to soul than life of star. 

58 



LIFE 

[Life is more than a chunk of intellect 
Sent into the ivorld to be entertained.'^ 

Out of the heavens as falls the snow 
Souls come down to the children of earth. 
Flakes of life from the bosom of God 
Sent to quicken an earth cold clod; 
With warmth of Deity all aglow, 
The soul is planted in human birth. 

Delicate plants in unkindly soil 
Where winters are long and heavy the toil 
How shall ye grow how shall ye grow 
In a world of trouble and want and woe 
Where air and earth and the waters beneath 
Are hostile to life, are friendly to death? 

Yet, ever the edict is come and grow, 
And ever the edict is come and go! 
The cry of an infant heard in the night 
A wailing cry in a hapless fight 
Life's span too narrow to reach the dawn 
The light of life in the night withdrawn. 

Yet, under the edict of Come and grow 
And under the edict of Come and go 
This life is entered for short or long 
For toil and sorrow or service of song. 
To eyes of all living the light is sweet 
Tho shadows often, lie deep at our feet. 

Battalions of evil united are joined, 
While forces of good are a volunteer band. 
Life's battle means death, cripples and wounds 
Means heroes, a few for whom glory abounds. 
Every creature a cripple, all flesh full of scars; 
59 



Life itself a caged bird ever beating its bars. 

The conflict is bitter 'twixt evil and good, 

Man must grow (if he grows) by might of his 

blood. 
In body and character, spirit and might 
Ever breasting some storm ever facing the light; 
Man must grow (if he grows) by might of his 

blood. 
Thru sunshine and storm like an oak of the wood. 

Out topping his fellows in virtue or crime, 
His head swathed in clouds or a nimbus divine; 
Man must follow or lead and leaders are few, 
Where dim is the light, the false often seems true. 
In our conflict with error, darkness and doubt, 
If we follow the true, the false we may rout. 

A smile conquers more than stoutest of swords. 
Deeds, silence, count more than weapons or words, 
Though short, life is roomy and fairly supplied 
With aches, pains and tears, love and joy beside, 
With passions of evil, emotions of good, 
Life's shore line is washed by tides in the blood. 

The image each worships is found in the heart. 

Be it silver or gold, be it science or art. 

Be man cruel or selfish or lover of kind. 

The God that is worshipped in each heart we find. 

By choice life grows, growth depends upon food. 

By choice man grows toward evil or good. 

Under law life is spirit with matter combined, 
Hence a limit to freedom in nature we find ; 
Law limits the burden and length of the road; 
Love sweetens the service when part of the load. 
Man may grow love and hope till servitude past 

60 



Then in pure light of freedom and wisdom may 
bask. 

Evil thoughts on heart and face leave a stain, 
Pure thoughts, sweet the face, and happy the brain. 
Life's a mission of duty an errand of trust, 
A foot path o'er mountains thru valleys of dust. 
Bread and water of life are everywhere found 
On which man may feed, standing feet on the 
ground. 

Be life happy or sad depends on the man, 
Depends on subserving or spoiling God's plan; 
A plan that is plain as His law or the sun 
Or hope in the hearts of His children, each one. 
It includes the life now the life whence we come 
And at last the sweet joy of again life at home. 



BEAUTIFUL WOMEN 

I have tested the light for fifty years 
And my eyes are keen and bright 
There is beauty in the face of a child 
As well as the man of might, 

But a rarer beauty 

Nor less uncommon. 

Is the peerless beauty 

Of a sweet old woman. 

A nimbus of patience frames the face 

The life well ripened is full of grace 

And the heart once narrow, grown warm and wide 

Has room for all, like the old fireside. 

To children and friends 

And guests in common 

There's no face like the face 

Of a pure old woman. 
6i 



On the train I've seen her look fresh and clean 
When every one else looked fretful and mean. 
A humble soldier of troubles and cares 
Whose heart kept sweet thru bitter years. 

Thru life's low stretches 

So dusty and common, 

None carries a face 

Like a saintly old woman. 

Deep eyes and wrinkles there may be too 
A worn old face but the lights shine thru; 
Sweet light from the stars of hope and faith 
And a love for man like the Savior hath. 

Before her beauty 

Youth beauty is common 

I bow at the feet 

Of a grand old woman. 

Old sweethearts with faces full of charms 
In a world of trouble, wounds and harms 
This world is better because of you 
The beyond more real, its promises true. 

There's a light in thy face 

That is wholly uncommon, 

I'm a child in the presence 

Of God's old women. 

WASTED OPPORTUNITIES 

When the young earth was finished 
And rolled at God's feet; 
And measured by wisdom 
All things were complete. 
With their garden enclosed 
And planted to hand — 
With duties assigned 
All lovingly planned. 
It would seem. Eve and Adam 
62 



Without taint of blood, 

Had openings in life 

That were roomy and good. 

But they wasted their chances, 

And evil entailed 

On the whole human race; 

In Eden man failed. 

From perfection once fallen 

Soon sin grew so rank, 

That the whole earth polluted 

In God's nostrils stank. 

Then the angels went searching 

And would you believe? 

But one family they found 

On the earth fit to live. 

Six score years brave Noah 

Derision withstood 

'Till the world's laugh 

Was hushed in the 

Earth's cleansing flood; 

And then faith's old hero 

At whom the world railed, — 

O, fate to be wept o'er — 

In the restored earth, he failed. 

Pray next trace the promise 

To patriarchs good. 

That a rich land He would give 

To the sons of their blood. 

From the Egypt to Canaan 

Of each human race 

From the aim to be good 

To the end in disgrace 

By achievements in ruins 

Life's history we trace. 

Israel willed to do good. 

But thru weakness entailed — 

Tho God tarried with him, 

63 



In Canaan man failed. 

In the Church partial failure! 
He's a failure in state 
Though fair in aught else 
As a failure he's great. 
Unsettled his science 
Uncertain his praise 
Obscure too, the meaning 
In much that he says. 
Tho a possible god, 
Man is generally so thin. 
That he ranks as a symbol 
For failure and sin. 



ARE YOU DOING YOUR BEST? 

White are the ashes of many a thought 

That has burned in the brain. 
Foolish ambitions for which men have fought 

Dismal their trails of pain. 
Desolate victories genius hath won 

Lacking a noble aim. 
Gardens of hopes lie withered and dead 

Loves neglected and slain, 
Strewing the pathway of many a life. 

Wreckage of heart and brain. 
Low aims — O, doubts, ye have hurt the world 

More than swords and spears. 
The Atheist's laugh has bruised more hearts 

Than the burdens of all the years. 

Awaken, O Souls! Why live like moles 

On the bitter roots below. 
Up, up to the top, where flowers and fruits. 

In rich abundance grow. 



64 



Wayside shrines I have seen a corpse on a cross, 
Hanging stormbeaten, wasted and dread; 

Arise — look beyond the image of loss 
And the living Christ worship instead. 
Empty grave, an angel, burial clothes, 
God's Son is risen the whole world knows! 

Fuller life is waiting for thee. 
The battle is won over death and sin; 

Accept Him, Salvation is free! 
Love's triumph, o'er sorrow is tender and sweet; 

Heirs of joy in heaven are we. 



MY PALACE OF ART 

Many and great are the halls of art 
In cities old and new 
Where mangled statues stand for art 
And out of old canvas baked faces start 
At the wide-eyed visitors' view. 

There is never a heart 

In those forms of stone 

From within no light on the face ; 

On smoky canvas though ever so old, 

Only color and form we trace — 

At best but a painted face. 

When chisel or brush has done its best 

On landscape group or head 

Tho the effort live — a work of art, 

'Tis a corpse with the spirit fled 

Some unit of nature dead 

Shrouded in curves of beauty 

Or smothered in painter's red. 

But in memory's hall my statues all 
Are the living forms of friends 

65 



The faces there never stonily stare 
For soul is never lacking where, 
We give and take as friends. 
There memory dowers life. 

The heart is the home of friends we love 

Where faces keep warm and bright 

There they are never averted 

When troubles come, 

In the face of a friend there is light. 



A SURFEIT OF EVIL 

The brain of the world is troubled, 
The heart of the world is sick. 
There is doubt, unrest and worry. 
Great evils, grave rumors fly thick. 

Thru press and currents electric, 
Deeds of darkness stalk into the light; 
Earth's cruelty bloodshed and passion; 
All nations and parties in fight. 

Even love once so sweet and delicious 
Is despoiled of her worship and charms ; 
Faith, Hope, man's archangels of mercy 
Seem to droop in the world's weary arms. 

Life's hurry and worry and friction 
Increase as the days that are flown; 
Peace comfort are dreams of delection 
With Hail! Farewell! and are gone. 

Invention and civilization 
Have so widened our knowledge of crime. 
That our brains and hearts with the poison 
Seem injured and tainted for time. 
66 



Why feast we on lust, crime and passion 
When the beautiful, good and true 
Wait above and around in profusion 
To refresh our parched souls with their dew. 

Virtue never improves on bad knowledge 
Vice never reforms painted red. 
Hearts that ache least and beat longest 
Must on wisdom and patience be fed. 

Providence is not a power that apportions, 
To each age and each life its ill. 
Men rebel, choose plenty and bondage, 
Then He leadeth them out as He will. 



THE BETTER COUNTRY 

November winds rave through the sky 
Stripping nature and leaving her cold 
The wild birds complainingly cry 
As their southward journey they hold. 
The kingliest trees on the hills 
Have shaken their coronals down 
The voice of the streams and the rills 
Is sad and the meadows are brown. 

Thru the kindliest days of my youth 
The fever of waiting hath swept 
And life's summer alas for the truth 
Over error and wrong I have wept. 
And now with the winter so near 
Like the wild birds complaining I cry 
For a home in a sunnier sphere 
With the River of Life flowing by. 



67 



CREATION'S MASTERPIECE 

For this human flesh that binds 
Us immortals to the earth 
Lord we thank thee for thy kindness 
Making souls of priceless worth. 
For endowing man with reason 
To all other flesh denied: 
For setting them in families 
Planning husband, planning wife. 
Creation's crowning masterpiece 
With breath of God for life. 

Man born to rule — yet called to serve, 

Thy path ahead is rife 

With promises of happiness 

To the faithful here in life. 

Human flesh is honored truly 

By its maker and its Lord : 

'Bove flesh of beast or flesh of fish 

'Bove flesh of soaring bird. 

For tho he's tethered to the flesh 

He's heir and— Child of God. 

Yet sometimes here man lives so low 

He seems an earthly clod. 



HEART STORIES 

The earth is full of glories 

From sky, in woods and streams, 

Men's hearts are full of stories, 
Men's brains are full of dreams. 

Though brain and heart may perish, 
Earth's glories be forgot, 

Mind-dreams and true heart stories, 
Live on and perish not. 
68 



ORIGIN AND DESTINY 

These questions arise universal, 
Our whence, our whither and why, 
Life's origin, fable, and mystery 
Its duration a span of the sky, 
Then, disorganized losing identity, 
Whither goes life, when we die ? 

Science prates about Monads, and Molecules 
Of cells, protoplasm and mud. 
Declares evolution a great law of progress, 
Controlling life currents of blood, 
Preaches choice and natural selection, 
Credit strength with Caliban-purpose 
To achieve all ultimate good. 

The procession is lengthy eternal, 

Its head in the glory on high. 

While the tail follows on woe bedraggled 

Through palace and stable and stye. 

Hoary time alone knows the struggle — 

Heard each death groan evolve a new cry. 

I pause, I ponder, I question, 
I am — came some way I know. 
Earth's myriads, endless succession, 
In one cosmos of conflict and law. 

While I pause and ponder and question, 
The procession moves on toward some goal, 
Not the hope of an earth born desire 
But the home, spirit home of the soul. 

Dower chance, with the grace of creation 
Or to matter, adjudge the vast plan. 
But for me, I accept the all Father, 
Who breathed his own spirit in man. 

69 



TOUCH 

There is no weakness in a fond caress 
The soul doth leap to taste 

The ripened richness 
Of clean sweet lips. 

Fair cheeks turn white, 
A tremor shakes the frame, 

How good from willing lips 
A kiss to claim. 

The eloquence of touch 
Enchains the soul; 

What subtle charms 
Doth every sense control; 

Blest aid to sight, 

To hearing and to speech, 

The soul thru thee 
Its highest joy may reach. 



TIME 

Time, the destroyer, is ever at work. 
Spoiling the sunshine, spoiling the dark. 
Filling the day with wrinkles and cares, 
Filling the night with shadows and fears, 
Wrecking the ships on every sea. 
Hurling to ruin the cities we see. 
Cooling the sun, shrinking the stars 
And wasting life with direst wars. 
But death is only change in form. 
The thing essential suffers no harm; 
Life, beauty, in fresher forms appear, 
Law clothes the earth anew each year. 



70 



Succession, ever from old to new, 
Atom and planet and starry crew 
Circle and roll in grand review, 
With naught but the master's will to do. 
Matter only is wrecked by time. 
The spirit in love to God will climb 
And enjoy the angel's happy clime, 
Unharmed by the eating tooth of time. 



JOY IS IMMORTAL 

All songs of woe are earthly songs 
That perish with the flight of years 

But joy pours her immortal songs 

Like sunlight through this vale of tears. 

Decay and death reign everywhere 
In bud and blossom fruit and tree 

Love, faith, hope, goodness 'scaping free 
Assert our immortality. 

All odes of death are muffled strains 
That echo from earth's Cemetery 

Where mother nature calls and keeps 
Our cold dust when in death it sleeps. 

But life and hope and love 

On lark wings soars above 
Where Joy immortal reigns 

Completes all broken strains. 

Sweet faces all restored 

No death where love is Lord 
The immortal ship on board 

Bears joy complete unmarred. 



71 



EVOLUTION OR KISMET 

With what is nature satisfied? 
Summer says production. 
Presto change — the seasons glide, 
Winter says destruction. 
Birth and death mark the extremes 
Of the path she travels. 
Whence the birth or why the death. 
Are knots she ne'er unravels. 
Back and forth the shuttle goes 
Thru each changing season; 
Nature is never satisfied, 
It's plain she does not reason. 
Prithee, what are nature's laws? 
God's fiat, repetition, 
The evolution of a plan, 
The freedom of rotation. 

LOVE CASTETH OUT FEAR 

The sun each morning comes anew 

To drive the night away, 
But love once welcomed to the heart 

Abideth night and day. 

Both fear and hate are dispossessed 

Yet there's no vacant room 
When love first fills the human breast, 

Then life bursts into bloom. 

THINGS WE REALLY KNOW 

How few are the things 
That we really know 
Compared with the many 
We dimly perceive. 
How seldom the light 
72 



Strong and clear, breaks thru 
Our shadows and doubts 
And shines where we live. 

We sigh for the hill tops 
All flooded with light 
That lie in the distance 
So grandly in view 
Like the dawn of tomorrow 
To reach them alas! 
Some valley, some night 
Must be surely passed thru. 

In the valleys malaria is rank, 
And fevers consume in each vale 
Life perishes rank upon rank. 
Ere the lift of the foothills we hail 
The nights are noxious with dews 
Death rests the mass ere the dawn ; 
Few indeed struggle on to the heists 
Which the light rests in glory upon. 

WE SEE DIMLY 

Man's vision's dim he cannot see 
The hand that shapes his destiny; 
Something elective in the soul. 
Some power elusive gains control 
And shapes the life. 

Logic our slave, prates, prophecys 
Of downward slant or upward rise, 
Asserts a bent, declares to know 
The future way the man will go; 
It may be so. 

Man's life is short, pray who can see 
The hand that shapes eternity? 
73 



Yet onward ever all things go, 
The master spirit wills it so; 
Controls the bent. 

Aeons of years have come and gone, 
The seasons unperturbed roll on, 
Yet each age boasts above the past. 
His generation beats the last. 
And bides content. 

EVER IN DEBT 

Alone I fall, alone I cannot rise, 

A God must lift me if I reach the skies. 

From heaven man came down to earth. 

To go to heaven lacks both strength and worth. 

As babe I rested on my mother's knee, 

As boy I courted wisdom, shouted free ! 

As man grew boastful, arrogant and proud, 

School trained became both vain and loud, 

Loss, sickness, out one cannot fence. 

Experience only, dowers us with sense. 

THE LIFE TRAIL 

From the past to the present 

Our life-trail extends; thence 

To some future point, where it ends. 

What beautiful stretches 

Of plains and of hills 

Of valleys and mountains 

Each span of life fills. 

Many moons give their light 
Many nights full of stars 
Shed their beams on this trail 
Thru life's struggles and scars, 
74 



A generous light from the sun day by day 
Makes surer, lighter each step on the way. 
Low and sweet voices whisper—^ 
The hopes of the years 
To the heart when it is sad 
To the brain's troubled fears. 

Rare blossoms of friendship, 

Warm hand clasps of love, 

Are the traveler's birthright 

While faith points above. 

No pilgrim journeys the life trail alone. 

A friend goes with each ; of old it was penned, 

"Lo, I am with you alway unto the end." 

GATHERING TRUTH 

The stars of the night are many 
The light of the day is the sun. 

The brains of the world are many 
The mind of the world is one. 

Each brain has its noons of fever 

Its nights of fret and doubt 
In gathering truth in limitless fields 

Which the infinite mind maps out. 

Incessant and sharp the struggle 

To grasp the infinite thought 
And seemingly ever beyond us 

Is the truth for which we wrought. 

Each brain's like an arid desert 

Where mirages of truth arise 
And reason and hope are pilgrims 

To the wells of the All Wise. 

Here single truths are oases 
75 



With refreshings for the soul, 
But we pant for the land of promise 
For truth, the infinite whole. 

THE TEACHER OF NAZARETH 

O, Thou for whom the whole creation yearned, 

From Adam's fall 
Till thou in Bethlehem wast born. 

The streams of mercy, truth, righteousness 
By primal purpose meant to water 

All the fields of life 
Had left their native channel beds. 

Seemed dried or turned aside 
Upon an ingrate world of bigotry. 

Of lust, cruelty and selfishness, 
Timely thy coming, thou didst find and feed 

The feeble streams of Faith and Hope, 
And put the stumbling feet of marching hosts 

Upon the way of righteousness and truth, 
And make thy followers victors over death. 

THIS EVERY DAY WORLD 

An endless procession of day and night 
A mighty procession of wrong and right 
A motley procession of black and white 

Is this every day world. 
Out into space who blazed this path? 
Here, why is goodness mingled with wrath? 
Pray make it plain whom wisdom hath 

To a waiting world. 

The schools of sense and sight, reply; 

The good or ill is in the eye. 

Things must be somehow — that is why, 

In a tangible world. 
God made it and pronounced it good 

76 



Though treason on It spawned his brood 
Yet God maintains his fatherhood 
Is faith's reply. 

God's plans immense are clear as light, 
Though here there is only part in sight ; 
Other horizons large in size 
The purpose shows to better eyes. 
O, mortal man move on, move on! 
This night of life leads to the dawn 
Where faith and hope and love regain 
The heights where all things are made plain. 

THE FIRST FROST, NATURE'S TRAGEDY 

White and cold lay the moonlight 

Over the earth all night 

As the frost king rode 

With his princes abroad 

To enjoy the wealth of the year. 

Bud and blossom he kissed 

There was nothing he missed 

But his breath was death 

To forest and heath 

As the nuts he untied with care. 

f 
He jeweled the earth with beauty rare. 
Too frail to last in the sun's full glare. 
Beauty-bubble of breath. 
For in it was death 
To the beautiful everywhere. 

When out of the east the morning came. 
There were bashful blushes of every beam 
That kissed the brow of the early dawn, 
Leaped to the earth ; passed on ; and on ; 
A procession of kisses rare. 
77 



On prisms of splendor the sunshsine fell, 
O, the wealth of that moment none may tell ; 
A flash of glory, a swift gleam lost, 
A year of labor that moment cost, 
The earth swung black and bare. 

How cruel it seemed as I walked around — 
The children of summer lay on the ground; 
They seemed, to say, "Deceived, robbed, slain. 
We trusted his kingship all in vain. 
He promised us beauty rare. 

His words were kingly under the moon 
We wantoned at night are lost ere noon; 
He scattered his jewels as if in fun. 
They blazed in the star-light every one 
Like diamonds in beauty's hair. 

With added charms we longed for day. 
When morning came they fled away, 
As the false always have done. 
They were counterfeit every one 
And their poison its work has done." 

Beware of the tempter that comes by night 

When stars swing low and moon is bright, 

For the night is for rest 

And the day is best 

To test the truth now here. 



THE GAME OF NATURE 

I see effect, 
I seek the cause, 
Am led by hope. 
Hemmed in by laws. 



78 



ihe mornings come out of the east 
The days go out in the west 
Long are the seasons of toil 
Short are the times of rest. 
Ever the seasons go round, 
The dates of birth and death, 
Earth-life comes out of the night 
And goes out in the night of death. 

So forever in dumb amaze 
I look the world in the face 
And ever of nature I ask 
What is the game she plays? 
And while I pause for reply, 
A cyclone girdles the earth 
Or in peace the nursing light 
To a myriad motes gives birth. 

I watch the forces that build 
The rocks, the flowers, the trees, 
Unbalanced swiftly destroy 
The beauty and strength of these. 
The flower fades from sight 
Ere I number its delicate hues; 
A star explodes its light 
And a point in space I lose. 

Mutations of good and of ill 
Beat on the feeble, the bold; 
The babe is bom into blight, 
Nature loves nothing that's old. 
And ever I question the cause 
Of the smile or the frown on her face 
And ever the earth replies — 
"Accursed, Fm a stranger from grace.' 



79 



So above or beneath I must look 
For a key, this riddle to ope; 
Since nature, in all the round world 
Feeds nothing immortal like hope. 
In succession no comfort I find 
Tho the type never suffers decay; 
Has the creature no prospect in death? 
Is wear out the toilers sole pay? 

The rocks urge their records in vain 
The sea adds a manifold store 
Locked in fate, under law written plain, 
Succession and death, nothing more. 
The unrest of the here, and the now. 
Is but changing of matter in form, 
Beyond the freed spirit shall stand 
Undimmed by mutation or harm. 

Earth arrangements are vast, I insist 
So I urge the whence, whither and why 
Nature, science, art, cannot know, 
They are bounded by sense, by the eye. 
Ever Sphinx like she looks into space. 
And her face too, by vandals is marred ; 
But to know why she smiles or frowns 
Man's wisdom has never unbarred. 

The savage and tender she feeds 
Alike nurtures serpent and dove; 
Her children are war, doubt, death; 
Her visitors faith, hope and love. 
From cradle to grave nature turns 
Her complex pageant of facts. 
Revealing enigmas extremes. 
Ever hiding the spring of her acts. 

Life is still neath its pillar of cloud; 
Still by reason and sight we are led, 
80 



Yet beast roar and bird cry are heard 

By Him from whose hand all are fed. 
God's voice the distant sun hears 
Is obeyed by wind, river and sea 
Tho, thru nature I cannot see God 
Yet nature thru God I shall see. 

Neath my feet on her way turns the earth ; 
I am conscious there is law in her flight; 
Tho perturbed and chancelike all seems, 
Wisdom governs I know, beyond sight. 
Let me visit the fountains and springs 
That lie hid beyond nature in cause: 
For study the earth as I will 
She reveals but a conflict of laws. 
There is much eye of flesh cannot see 
That is near, and yet beyond sight. 
Earth's kingdoms will not be explained 
'Till with God we go forth in the light. 

HIDDEN WISDOM 

God hid a measure of Wisdom 
In nature according to plan; 
That it might honor its maker 
And nurture his creature man. 
He planned for rock and planet 
Took thought for seed and root 
Suited a voice to every mouth 
Made paths to fit each foot. 

Yet thru the springs I question 
Whether bud and leaf is all 
Only grasping the answer of purpose 
When I garner the fruits of fall. 
Then amazed I cease to question 
Why zones are hot or cool 
For above sits infinite wisdom 
8i 



The earth is her foot stool. 
God provides for all the living 
In abundance, what is best, 
His open hand presents life's food- 
Never pitched in any nest. 



LOVE 

What is this that thrills me, fills me? 
Brimming like immortal nectar, 

Hebe gives the blest, 
Stirs me as new life the northlands 

At the South winds breath? 
Swift thru heart and brain joy flashes. 

All my nature yields; 
'Till aswoon I seem to anchor 
In a sweet delicious languor 

In elysian fields. 

This is love I know its usage, 
Red-lipped kisses are its fruitage. 
While I pluck them soft caresses 
Spirit touches, rapturous presses. 
Waking life, new joy expresses, 
Rolls the eye in liquid seeing, 
O, the souls delicious dreaming 
When two hearts with love is teeming; 

Souls unmasked, 
Down a heavenly light comes stealing 
Depths of heart and soul revealing. 

All unasked. 
Love is the soul's gigantic effort 
To regain its lost completeness. 
To evolve life's bitter sweetness 

Here and now. 



82 



When in love God takes the measure 
For the crown He'll place hereafter 
On the brow. 

STORM LORE 

When great winds meet upon the sea 

And wild storms join in revelry 

When dark clouds roll and rain falls free 

And lightnings flash most terribly 

And the thunder speaks of eternity, 

Ah ! then on a steamer's deck you'll see 

Pale lips show deepest agony. 

For craven fear owns never a chart 

The bed of sickness is fear's own port 

When reason is dumb and faint the heart. 

But to those whose faith holds all in fee 
Sublime are the seasons of storm at sea. 
Then God sets his element wheels awhirl 
In His groves of coral and beds of pearl 
To fashion and polish the gems of the world. 
To polish rare jewels without a mote 
To glitter and glow on beauty's throat. 
To sweeten the waters so dark and deep 
To work His will, preserve and keep 
The life of the sea by the current's sweep. 

Land without water has little worth 

So clouds must be sent to all the earth ; 

Hence the sea toils hard, is nature's plant 

By wisdom planned to meet earth's want; 

Storms do the work that calm days can't. 

God strains Himself, as it seems to me. 

When he marshals His elements on the sea. 

In love? yes, love on the sea was born 

When red drops fell from a god's pierced form, 

Love, beauty was born on the sea. 

83 



When myth gods fought in passionate storm, 
Then Aphrodite of graceful form 
Was by crimson drops set free. 
Look again! look wider! O, man and see 
The path of the ransomed winds thru the sea. 
At last purged with fire on it shall stand 
The victors o'er evil with harp in hand, 
God's choir to honor the judge who will stand 
Right foot on the sea, left foot on the land. 

LIVING BOOKS 

Every life is a living book 
With pages large or small 
On every page God's eye will look 
Blank, blurred or written full. 
Like folds of earth our deeds 
Our thoughts, acts, even praying, 
To the Divine Judge life's story 
Will ever be portraying. 

The book of life the book of death 

In Egypt's rock hewn halls. 

Where ancient kings were laid to rest 

Is graven on their walls. 

There, we today may read, what they 

In pomp of life have done; 

And how men strove to show where they. 

The mighty dead have gone. 

Chisel and color on those tombs 

Show forty centuries past. 

How judges weighed the heart, the brain, 

The soul's life to forecast. 

They weighed, computed good and bad 

As shown in books of stone; 

The anxious judges' solemn looks 

Show by their acts, what's known. 

84 



So we toil, strive, seek, pray- 
In The Lamb's Book of Life 
To have recorded day by day 
Some victory over strife. 
The human struggle has been great 
To sight life's final goal 
And put at rest our anxious quest, 
The last state of the soul. 



PAST AND FUTURE 

All that is past is but a dream I dreamed, 
A dream of gardens full of sweetest bloom, 
A dream of youth and hope enkindling suns 
A dream of friendships, loves and pleasures past 
High aims and hopes elusive to the grasp. 
A dream of fame such as ambition craves 
Memories of aches, of sobs, and silent graves. 
The past's an ocean in the realm of time 
Flesh is its shoreline, blood of life its clime. 
Some day, sweet death shall cut 
The knot of life and set us free, 
The soul immortal is to life the fee. 
Then hope shall to the future point anew 
As fields of truth appear in clearer view. 
All that we knew before of past or dead, 
Shall in the future be uncovered. 
Here man dies daily both in head and heart 
At last makes room for those 
In this world's drama, who shall take a part. 
Sweet death shall some day cut the knot 
That tethers us to flesh and earthly quest. 
Life's fever over we shall cool and rest. 
Hope, truth and love import a higher zest; 
When we shall bathe beside the well of life 
Done with the chase and all unfruiting strife. 
85 



LOVE'S CALL 

The night-bird sings within the bower, 
Come dearest, come, this is the hour 

Love blossoms like the rose; 
The sun has set the stars are bright 
Soft, radiant glories fill the night 

With joys too sweet to lose. 

Surely to bless life's hours of shade, 

Such nights the stars and moon were made, 

All lovers love the moon, 
The world in bloom, a midnight flower, 
That blossoms an appointed hour. 

When all things are in tune. 

Speed, longing hearts, life's call attend. 
Love's Eden found shall never end, 

Creation bids us choose, 
Tho hope of heaven our souls command. 
No reason in this border land, 

Why we earth's joys refuse. 

LIFE AND KNOWLEDGE 

Two trees within the garden, we are told, 
Where Eve and Adam dwelt in days of old. 
Grew temptingly and fruited well. 
They of the Tree of Knowledge ate and fell. 
But from the Tree of Life, most strange to tell. 
Only the scent of hope with dreams immortal. 
Upon their ravished senses fell. 

Since then, the race of men with manifold 
Conjecture of what might have been; 
Had they too eaten of the other tree, 
We had escaped death's shadows; now be free 
To mingle life and knowledge with simplicity. 
86 



Since then, perplexed has been the race of men 

About the estate they lost ; the garden Eden ; 

About truth and life and immortality. 

But O, what ravishment of dreams, faith, hope, 

Have blessed our lost estate since then. 

And filled our souls with sweeter fragrance even, 

Blown o'er the earth by love's own breath 

From out the gates of heaven. 

THE ROAD TO VICTORY 

(These are they which came out of great tribu- 
lation, and have washed their robes and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb. Rev. 7-I4-) 

History drips with the conflict of ages 
Trade is cruel with grinding for gain 
Schools, statesmen, the wisdom of sages 
Agree not, confuse heart and brain. 
Fad, passion, no sating appeases; 
Earth's tears are more bitter than brine; 
Yet the songs of believers grow sweeter, 
Love, faith, shall be victors in time. 

Lust of gain is stronger than life is. 
Each soul has its conflicts with sin. 
Men are mad with a madness that rages; 
Developed since God said — Begin! 
Men are cruel and yet, full of pity; 
Sometimes yielding a fragrance divine. 
There is nothing sweeter than love is. 
Faith, Love shall be victors in time. 

O, Savior of man, thou redeemer 
Of men from the ruin of dreams; 
Calling, come and with thee be partaker, 
Where heaven's sweet light sheds its beams. 
The promise is Thine, is no man's; 

87 



Of our victory Thy cross Is the sign ; 
Thy voice is sweeter than woman's, 
Faith, Love, shall be victors in time. 

GALILEE 

Dawn came, the sun had put to flight, 

The pomp of stars that filled the night, 

Our startled eyes looked on the sea, 

The hills, the plains of Galilee. 

A sacred stillness filled the air. 

His vanished voice seemed everywhere. 

There lay Bethesda, where the Lord, 
The blindman's eyes to sight restored. 
And in a desert place close by. 
Five thousand fed from scant supply. 

And there Capernaum on the rocks, 
Nestled midst herds and feeding flocks. 
There Jesus dwelt and mighty works did He, 
Sweet doctrine taught, rebuked the wind. 
And stilled the troubled waves of Galilee. 

There silent, white, upon a rocky pyramid, 
"A City set upon a hill cannot be hid." 
There from the fishes mouth a coin to pay 
Tribute to Caesar, met their need one day. 

And here, at gray of dawn, night's labor o'er. 

Came his sweet voice from fair Genesaret's shore, 

"Children have ye any meat?" They knew the Lord 

And plunging in some swam and 

Others rowed to reach the land. 

And there upon some smoking coals 

Broiled fish, with honey comb beside. 

To meet their wants; the Lord in love supplied. 

There from Gergesa's Tombs, they come 
The two, in whom, a legion devils dwelt at home. 
Demoniacs, exceeding fierce were they, 
88 



So none in safety mightest pass that way. 
Demons to obey the Lord, could not decline; 
But hastened forth and entered in the swine; 
Ran down the steep in hot satanic glee, 
And drowned themselves in placid Galilee. 

There near the shore, their Lord the men espied, 
Calling — ''Your net cast on the right side!" 
And from yon rising slope and rocky steep 
The faithful shepherd sought his wandering sheep, 
And in yon vale, wet with the dews of dawn, 
He praised the lilies above Solomon. 



NAZARETH 

Mary Virgin, blessed of God; 

How oft thy feet these streets have trod. 

The pleasing scenes thy hills unroll. 

Abound in feasts for heart and soul. 

Nature in kindliest mood compels 

Earth's simple charms to crowd thy dells. 

Along whose slopes wild blossoms run 

With painted cups to greet the sun; 

Tempting the eyes, the hands, the feet 

By object lessons, fresh and sweet. 

Thy circling hills, tho not sublime. 

Call lagging feet to upward climb 

To the horizon's wider rim; 

Whence, mind and soul ascend to Him 

Who came to earth a babe in flesh, 

Mothered of thee in Nazareth. 

Simple of life; thy kith and kin. 

To nature true — 'most free from sin. 

Fitting it was God's son should come. 

As Son of Man to Nazareth's home: 

Where kindly welcome, even yet. 

All Pilgrims to this village get. 

89 



The eyes are pleased by day, by night, 
'Neath sun and cloud and starry light, 
That look on thee, from sheltered height 
Where modest women, as of old. 
From Mary's Fountain sweet and cold, 
Bear jars of water on the head 
Along thy streets with swinging tread; 
Noting, all wants are simply met, 
Sans pomp, or show in Nazareth yet. 
The curse of wealth, rests not on thee; 
Sweet, simple faith hath made thee free 
From cankering care and sordid fee; 
Thy crown is cordiality. 



THE WORK OF A CENTURY 

(Watching a century plant bloom) 

A hundred years of storm and sun 
Has built each thorny blade, 

Yet none except the hundredth one. 
This glorious bloom presaged. 

A hundred years with constant toil 
Thou hast drained the barren earth, 

Breathing a hot, dry atmosphere. 
Hast labored for this birth. 

'Neath harvest moons and silent stars 
You have plied a tireless loom, 

Emptied your veins of light and shade, 
To weave this lovely bloom. 

A veteran indeed thou art 

A hundred years all told, 
A homely plant e'er since its birth 

At last is crowned with gold. 
90 



Ugly and shunned as little worth 
Thru all these changing years, 

The generations came and went 
Worn out by smiles and tears. 

Unpromising thru added years 

Your homely bulk enlarged, 
'Till perfected the inward life 

With beauty burst surcharged. 

Patient, obedient under law, 
God's purpose grand has been; 

Not traceable, or known to man, 
'Till now this bloom is seen. 

O, plants, how like to men ye are 

In all the things you teach; 
Howe'r so high your blossoms are 

Your roots the ground must reach. 

I've seen the aged bald and white 
Bowed 'neath a century's weight. 

All scarred and bent to outward sight; 
With spirits grand and straight. 

The generations came and went 
Nor marked the inward growth ; 

The outside rough and homely, 
Concealed from sight the truth. 

What wonders lie in nature hid 

'Long paths we daily tread 
Deserts of earth must deserts be 

Till they have blossomed. 

This plant of life holds much concealed 
Its growth outlasts time's years. 

Each blossoms in eternity — 

When done with doubts and fears. 
91 



GEORGIAN BAY, CANADA 

In the province of Ontario 

Lies an island, jeweled bay; 
Where the sun rolls up in splendor 

And his evening colors stay, 
Making twilight long and sacred 

Like hours of love and prayer 
Where communing sweet with nature 

Life triumphs over care. 

Here the soul tiptoes in wonder, 

Grasping mighty forces past. 
That sowed thirty thousand islands 

In those watery fields broadcast. 
What splendid pleasures wait for man 

In all such haunts of ease 
As Wabicon — the camp of flowers, 

Sansouci's — as you please. 

O, Island moods ye charm me, 

Fragrant forests, sweet your call ; 
Bird-songs, flower-incense, color, 

I hear, see, enjoy you all. 
O, Nature, Mother Nature, 

Igneous rocks beneath your feet. 
Glacial plowing made them ready 

For thy forest growths so sweet. 

Thy bays, lakes, crystal currents, 

Home of fish, invite to sport, 
Man is welcome to the real 

In life's simple primal port. 
To the Wild! sweet, sweet, the calling. 

From the cities' cares and strife. 
Rich thy welcome is and honest. 

Simple Nature ways of life. 



92 



WARS AND WOUNDS 

You ask me why I never write 
Of battles and of wars, 
I have no verses for the dead 
And living friends of Mars. 
You cite the many who have sung 
Of chiefs and men of arms, 
But you omit from every list 
Dead, maimed, and wasted forms. 
I love not those who beautify 
This scourge, the whole earth grieves. 
That bids men walk without their legs, 
And live with empty sleeves. 
I would not any evil gild 
Nor virtue find in wrong 
All fangs of snakes and dragon's teeth 
To evil things belong. 
From pains and aches and cruelty 
Sweet music ne'er was heard, 
Red battle fields and burning homes 
Show hate and wrath are stirred. 
Discordant drum and shrieking fife, 
Steel shotted gun and shell. 
Proclaim not "Peace good will to man," 
But visitants from hell. 
Just count the cost of wars and arms 
Of ruined homes and wasted farms; 
Tell o'er the tears, the idle looms, 
Behold earth filled with whited tombs! 
And when the feast of death is done 
And those who live with banners come; 
Look for your father, brother, son. 
Who to your arms no more will run. 
Then, if you can, bestow your praise 
On great destroyers, give them bays! 
Bloody ambition has no charms, 
Tho dipped in gore be both her arms. 
93 



When we our benefactors praise 

For deeds of goodness, in those days, 

Martial glory will die out; 

And doing good, men go about, 

As did the Nazarene 

Whom bruised hearts praise. 

For helping life in all its needful ways. 



MY FRIEND AND I 

We walked together my friend and I 
When the stars swung low in the sky above; 
We talked together of fame, of love; 
While the tide of life ran high. 
We talked a little my friend and I 
With backward glance at years agone. 
Of joy and sorrow then, hastened on 
To the present without a sigh. 

A moment we paused my friend and I 
Our hearts stood still in dumb amaze^ 
As we tried to read behind each face 
The soul thru the open eye. 
Then we faced the future my friend and I 
The possible crowded with hopes and fears 
To be reaped and garnered in smiles and tears, 
As the years come wearily by. 

We knew our hearts, my friend and I, 
Were full of passion and flesh a weight 
To the spirit panting for life's estate. 
In the possible by and by. 
We saw the wrecks — my friend and I, 
That mark the failures and waste of life; 
We heard the din and saw the strife 
That passes no one by. 



94 



With restless feet my friend and I 
Followed the reapers into the fields 
Where life it's mingled harvest yields 
Wealth, Love, Hate, Poverty. 
The mark was high my friend and I, 
Set on the brow of the coming day; 
Questioning, doubting we lost our way, 
And life became a sigh. 

We remembered at last, my friend and I, 

The days when promises lay about. 

And life was sweet with never a doubt. 

When nothing seemed to lie. 

Memory came back to my friend and I ; 

Came like a dream from a vanishing past, 

The taper of faith relighted at last. 

And hope shone again in our sky. 

We believed again, my friend and I, 

In the childhood faith that redeems us all 

Faith only redemption for those who fall — 

Doubt nothing except a lie. 

WHAT IS THAT IN THINE HAND? 

Ask him who strives and wins the game 

Ask him — is this life all? 
What say the strong, the blind, the lame, 

Is earth life's only call? 
Our hearts O, friends, were made for love, 

Male, female, they came here: 
Visit each Eden, there meet God, 

Joy, grief, world products are. 

Comes Hope unfathered to the brain? 

Is Faith mere drug to quiet pain? 
Tho some run mad, — this world's no blot! 

Evil atoned for mars it not. 
Why piece out life in starved design? 
95 



Ye are of royal blood! 
God's truer light burns grand in some! 

This life was broadly planned. 
Some waste, some mend earth's little day; 

All drop into God's hand. 

IDEALS 

Ideals are beautiful children 

Born in the brains of men, 
And the envied of earth are tailors 

Who in words apparel them. 

We name them intuition, 

Genius, reason, thought. 
But their value depends like children's 

On the home to which they are brought. 

A PART OF US DIES WITH OUR FRIENDS 

A part of us dies with our friends, 

Our hopes like spent stars 

Fade out and grow cold 

And our expectations like frosted leaves 

Drop into the earth and mould. 

A part of us dies with our friends, 
Death darkens the brightest day 
Makes home and the world 
Seem so lonely and wide 
We would rather go than stay. 

A part of us dies with our friends 
Love, friendship, unfostered must die; 
Tho sweet memory live, 
Tho we question and grieve, 
There's nothing comes back in reply. 

96 



A part of us dies with our friends. 

The rapture of touch and glance 

When the light of a face 

In death goes out 

We look on the faces left, in doubt, 

And weep o'er a vanished chance. 

A part of us dies with our friends 
The part that responds to demand 
Exchange of counsel and laugh, 
One half of a pleasure can never live 
Divorced from the other half. 

A part of us dies with our friends 
The part we give those we love 
A part of the brain a part of the heart 
Time's best promises end in part 
When death our friends remove. 



PARDON FOR MISTAKES 

When the heart is crushed with sorrow 
And the eyes are wet with tears 

When we cannot face to-morrow 
On account of crowding fears, 

It is sweet to then remember 

How the dear Christ loved his own 

And bore the whole world's sorrow 
In Gethsemane alone. 

How he understood our troubles 

And hearts so full of aches 
And gave the blessed assurance 

There is pardon for mistakes. 



57 



FLESH AND SPIRIT 

The brain hath it's thoughts 

The heart hath it's loves 

Some live, some wither and fade; 

But the soul hath a life 

That forever goes on 

In a pathway of light and shade. 

At times we climb to the mountaintop, 

Then in deepest valleys we mire, 

Like nature the soul 

Has its winters of cold 

And again its summers of fire. 



THOUGHT MESSAGES 

I had some thoughts, I put them in words. 
An operator told them out on clicking keys; 
Swiftly a message sped over continents 
And under seas. 

I later learned they reached my friend 
Just how it was I did not understand 
Or question, enough for me to know. 
Some one had planned. 

In confidence I paid required cost. 
No doubt arising that a word be lost. 
For each was safe protected on its course, 
By unseen force. 

Even so, soul-messages in fervent prayer 
On wings of faith speed to the Savior's ear 
Though reason may not fully understand 
What God has planned. 

So when disquieted by joy or fear 
My soul communion seeks, I speed 

98 



A message, word by word, in prayer 

To His own ear. 

Deep hunger for the infinite commands 

What gracious Love and Mercy understands, 

And so, I pray without a doubt or fear. 

My Friend will hear! 



LIFE IS GOOD 

Life called me and I came, 

From whence I know not. 

I waked and found me here. 

Loved echoes filled my ear like magic words, 

By dead lips spoken in some long ago; 

Life's mystery thrilled me so. 

I seized the cup of life, 

Filled with the wine of night. 

Sparkling, laughing with the rosy light 

Of adolescence, hope, ambition, love. 

Vintage from veins of deity, poured and shed, 

Life's hunger must be fed. 

Tho much of life has failed — 

Time dims the eye and dulls the ear — 

Yet life is good, I'm glad that I am here. 

No matter whence this spark of life was hurled, 

I am guest I know of more than this one world; 

Sweet voices whisper and I understand. 

The soul shall some day reach its native land. 



BLOSSOMS OF LIGHT 

We sat in the stern of the boat. 
And looking away to the right, 



99 



In the angle of each crinkled wave 
We saw the rays of the sun 
Burst into blossoms of light. 
Flame-flowers dropped from the sun 
Like spark showers fell on our sight 
Flashed a moment above each wave, 
Then sank to abysmal night 
In a hungry and watery grave. 

Tho half of the summer was past, 
The bay seemed a garden that day 
As we passed on our breeze rippled way. 
This lesson we learned that will last, 
From the light and waters at play. 
In each season, each clime, each zone. 
Rare blossoms unnoticed decay, 
Broadcast God's splendors are sown. 
His earth gardens bloom every day. 

Men are dumb, too blind to behold 
That the desert doth bloom as the rose; 
That the time by prophets foretold, 
Arrives as capacity grows. 
All nature's a tremble with love. 
The clouds pavilion His light, 
Men are heirs to below and above. 
Yet possess but a fragment of light. 

A VISION 

It was late in the month of December; 

There was snow on the shrieking blast ; 
And keen were the throes of the dying year. 
As the moments hurried past. 
My brain was hot and restless 

With the swelling thoughts of youth; 
And my soul was panting fiercely 
To drain the wells of truth. 
100 



The vastness stretched around me; 

The uncertain the unknown, 
As into the night I fared me, 

All silent and alone. 

Thru torn clouds, cold white moonlight 

Made of shadows a goblin play ; 
While stars at the earth winked ghostlike; 
And the forest with fear did sway. 
The earth to me was pathless, 

There appeared for me no road. 
My whence and whither distressed me, 
'Till I swooned beneath the load. 
Then I prayed for one to help me, 
Or at least something to guide, 
'Till it seemed the earth grew peaceful, 
'Neath the swelling summer tide. 

Then I awoke (I thought) and above me 

In the air I saw a bird; 
I rubbed my eyes and looked, and looked, 
For I feared my sight was blurred. 
But no, in the sky above me. 

With it's right wing cleft in twain, 
I saw it plainly with pinions spread, 
It beckoned me on again. 
Then I rose, or seemed to, and followed 

That bird in its onward flight. 
And in its shadow I swiftly went. 
Upborn by a wondrous might. 

At first my path seemed dreary. 

Uneven and grievous my load ; 
But by and by it easier grew. 

For that shadow became my road. 

It seemed toward the east we journeyed ; 

How swiftly thru space we roved; 
Yet the way was long and a curious throng 
lOI 



Looked up with wonder moved; 
Till at last o'er an ancient city, 

My bird with noble mien, 
Rested from flight, in mid air height; 

Then nevermore was seen. 

My clothes seemed old, my hair long grown, 

No more swept boyish shoulders; 
For half my life seemed backward flown. 
As those midnight streets I walked alone — 
Thrilled with their ancient splendor. 

I questioned the meaning, I said what next? 
Walked onward, stood still by turns, 

'Till one approached me whose face was kind, 
Addressed me and said "I am Burns — 

I am Warder of all the gifts of song; 
The language true joy and sorrow learns; 
The gift earth's people have prized so long." 

"I have heard your passionate cry," (he said) 

'^Your prayer for expression and light; 
Come, I will show you the road of life, 
Whose beginning is lost in night. 

Free will and fate mark ever the way. 

That leads from darkness to wondrous day, 
Man with his beginning has nothing to do. 
Life is mind, is spirit ; flesh has life too ; 
And man to each nature he has should be true. 

In flesh it's the way of the earth and the mould; 
Where life is but the flashes of heat and of cold 
That sobs thru earth's valleys, 

Or laughs among her hills; 

And emotion or passion alone reveals. 
As thermometers tell the state of the air. 

In winter or summer, foul weather or fair. 
When heart with its brood of emotions is full, 



1 02 



And reason would rule them as children at 
school ; 
She fails as the teacher for reasons in kind; 
In the flesh, mind and spirit are partially 
blind. 
There are scales on the eyes and scales on the mind ; 

Till these fall away be true to your sight, 
And the dawn of each morning 
Shall narrow each night." 

"Life is action, endeavor, a struggle for gain; 

Faith, hope are twin stars that burn in the brain; 
Disappointments will come and ambitions depart; 
You're immortal while love is the sun in your 
heart." 
He ceased, motioned onward and swiftly we 
went; 
While an arm to sustain me he graciously 
lent. 
We passed o'er the earth like a harmony, timed 
By the beat, beat, en masse, of the hearts of 
mankind. 
Till at last at the foot of Parnassus, we found 
That fountain where mortals with Godhood were 
crowned. 
He stooped with his cup reached over the brink 
Then arose like a spirit and gave me to drink. 

I eagerly seized it but scarce drank the whole. 

Ere a thirst, unquenchable, raged in my soul; 
In my hand was the cup but empty alone. 

The fountain had vanished, companion had flown. 
I trembled in wonder at what I had seen. 
But failed to persuade me 'twas only a dream; 
For afar as I float on the current of time 
Earth tongues tell of things in flesh felt or seen. 
When like John on Patmos in the spirit we've 
been 

103 



When death gives the soul Its mouth piece of 
thought 
Triune man shall then know and be known as he 
ought. 

POSSIBILITIES 

By striving man may 

Open glorified portals, 
May enter and there 

Rest safe with immortals. 
Wisdom knows the true path, 

Honor blazed It of old, 
Hope, love speeds each Pilgrim 

Along it, we are told. 

Greatheart keeps the inns 

At which one may rest; 
Goodwill spreads the feast 

Where true-worth Is guest. 
O Soul, murmur not 

Tho earth paths be hard, 
At the end waits the welcome. 

Thine the Joys of the Lord. 

CONSTANTINOPLE 

I stood upon Galata Tower. 
*Twas spring; the sun had warmed 
To restlessness life's pulsing blood, 
And wove a haze of languor 
Over drowsing city, plain and wood, 
Half rousing sleep to action. 
In that silent land of prayer 
What scenes of love and romance 
Lay before me, Bosphorus, Golden Horn, 
And old Stambul, where 
104 



Merchants seemed demanding 
Business should desist 
And give more time to rest, 
More time to the delights of Love, 
Ablutions, social rites and prayer. 

Slow caravans w^ith noiseless feet 

Were bringing musk, ointment, 

Richest jew^els, finest cloth 

To glad the heart of her who hides 

Her face from eager eyes of men, 

Yet is the houri of home and heart. 

Before me lay the city's minareted mosques ; 

Her clustered homes of mystery and love; 

The necromancy of her orient lore. 

All stirred, as by the vanishing of dreams. 

I felt the waves of change preceding action. 

The voices of wisdom, freedom, deep unrest. 

Calling an empire into modern life; 

I saw the hosts of Progress seek the van, 

I heard the plaudits of the rushing world 

Cheering each sturdy effort of reform 

So great the power of righteousness, when 

Nations praise the noble art of doing good. 



THE PHARISEE 

A Pen Picture. 

Honored of old in Israel 
Stern Student of the law 
Reducing with learned nicety 
By weight, measure and rule 
The duty, legal duty of a man 
To simple axiomatic certainty 
Under the code of Sinai. 

105 



Loving the pomp of worship, 
The judicial display of loyalty, 
Zealous of forms and tithes: 
Omitting kindliness and mercy 
(The imponderable qualities left out). 
Too good for any grace of soul 
Or tender bloom of heart. 

Spurning tolerance and mercy. 

By Imposed, rigid righteousness. 

Thou didst earn the curse 

Of frigid bigotry and creed; 

Thy prayers, made to be heard of men. 

Perished at the crossing of the streets; 

Thine alms were all rejected, 

The bugle's only note is notoriety. 

Life Is more than a tinsel show 

Of deep borders and phylacteries wide; 

All that you sought as good and great 

Failed, left but contempt, reproach, — 

The heritage of littleness that never dies. 

In all the splendid heavens of thy day 

Thou didst see no star of grace. 

Thine but belief In immortality. 

Sorely offended by Christ's words and works — 

You won the persecution of the world. 

WATER LILIES 

(Tippecanoe Lake, Indiana) 

By the Lake's lovely shores wherever I go 
In gardens God planted, the wild lilies grow. 
They grow golden hearted arrayed in pure white, 
Owing nothing to man or his complaisant might. 
Of Natures own planting, they need not man's care, 
Father's love for his children In bloom everjrwhere. 
1 06 



Their green leafy pads on the water they spread, 
And fill with cool shadows each deep, oozy bed, 
Lives hid in the shallows, from dark soil and grime 
Lifting blossoms of praise, to their maker and mine. 
Pure vestals are ye, at the shrine of the lakes 
Untrammeled in service unfearing mistakes. 

The author of Nature with loving intent. 
Made to suit every creature its environment. 
His gardens of blossoms fleck water and land, 
Green fields, cool forests invite on each hand. 
So I fly from the city, its strife and its heat. 
And rest me when weary at nature's green feet. 

I stroll thru green fields, over woodlands I trail. 
Communing with insects, I answer the quail. 
When weary, to rest, lie down on the grass. 
And study God's pictures of clouds as they pass. 
There is room for me here, each creature my broth- 
er, 
There is room for each mood where Nature is moth- 
er. 

WAYSIDE LESSONS 

Along a country road I drove 
With friends one summer day 

Thin woods, green canopied above 
Shut out the sun's hot ray. 

The old rail fence on either side 
Was moss grown in decline; 

Decay seemed wed to life and pride 
And crowned with eglantine. 

In half cleared places log and stump 
Were covered with wild bloom, 



107 



Flowers of earth, and sun and damp 
Whose breath was sweet perfume. 

Wayside surprises everywhere 
Of wealth of summer told, 

Nature was happy, not a care 
Her wide realm seemed to hold. 

The birds sang only songs of love, 

In fields, stock fed at rest. 
God's benediction from above 

Dropped on the earth and blest. 

Insect, bird and beast and plant. 

Were happy all about; 
Man seemed the only creature met, 

Burdened with care and doubt. 

JUNE VOICES 

The June winds sing to me of love. 
And voices whisper from the spheres 

Life currents meet below, above. 
And cancel all earth's past arrears. 

The waves of life that gladden earth 

Have clothed in verdure plains and hills. 

Blossom and song and joy and mirth 
Hope's vintage for the soul distils. 

Life hath supremacy to-day. 

O'er death, decay and broken wings. 
The universal soul hath sway, 

I feel its stir, hear whisperings. 

Rare mental feast of happy thoughts! 

I entertain delightful guests, 
A fuller life drops down to greet 
io8 



All life below with large bequests. 

How luminous the moments are 
When all our best is free from cloud, 

From our dead selves we then arise 
And leave behind the tomb and shroud. 



THE GOODBY SMILE 

A glow comes back when day is done, 
A smile, goodnight, from the setting sun, 
To-morrow's promise to all the earth 
Daily repeated thro life, from birth; 
Just a goodby wave of a parting friend 
In pure heart color, thine to the end. 

A STUDY IN NATURE 

I love to muse on nature, field and flood 
To climb her mountains and behold her stars. 
From all her generous seasons I receive my food. 
In all her moods and mine, I'm welcome at her al- 
tars. 
Each day the current of her heart she pours in mine. 
In nature we are one, she is mine, I am hers, 
Tho not in all, I'm conscious on the whole 
Of something more, tho she may have a soul. 
She's but the symbol of a Maker's thought. 
Perchance discarded from the eternal mind 
And under banishment — the slave of law; 
Yet in the keeping of the omnific will. 
Her every action vibrates to all law. 
Hath no diversity within itself 
Beyond the limit of potential cause. 

I am more than matter in I hope for good. 
Of her, yet hold the living breath of God. 
109 



I live above her in immortal thought, 

Yet dimly see and know the task she's w^rought. 

Nature weds death — my life is sick of blood. 

No debt forgives she, and no grave she fears. 

Man does ; he hopes for quietness and peace ; 

Such life begins where life of matter ends; 

Immortal life and nature can't be friends, 

She serves alike her victors and her slaves ; 

Pardons naught living, — though all, pardon craves. 

Conscious and greater at the close of day, 

When life is done, no man dared ever say, 

I kept unbroken nature's laws of life. 

The only written chart of God to man, 

The highest laws of being all men break. 

Then sigh for honest nature and her strife. 

A WAYSIDE FLOWER 

I stood by a wayside flower 
Whose fragrance filled the air 
Surprised at the fostering power 
Amazed at the infinite care 
That the feeblest things in nature 
Receive in their brief lives here. 
I said as I watched it growing, 
"You are thirsty, that is plain!" 
Clouds swiftly covered the heavens 
And watered it with rain. 
For man it had fragrance and color 
For butterflies honey and dew, 
A defenseless, needy flower. 
Most artless, simple and true. 
'Twas so delicate that I marveled 
Whence its suitable food was brought, 
Then discovered that, Laws of Chemistry 
Nourished each fiber and root. 
So frail I feared for its safety 
To guard it I felt I ought, 
IIO 



But infinite wisdom forstalled me; 

It was safe not needing my thought. 

Man is slow, oft fails where creation 

In matchless perfection has wrought, 

God loves it, clothes it with beauty; 

He has jeweled creation with thought. 

The world seemed laid under tribute 

To furnish it comfort and food, 

Nature nursed it, fostered it's beauty. 

Showers of grace supplement nature's duty. 

Sent like mother love for others good. 

The winds were marshalled to fan it. 

The stars lit their lamps in the sky 

To comfort and cheer it in darkness, 

Gifts poured in from beneath and on high. 

Earth and planets forever pay tribute 

To each simple sweet form, of God's thought. 

Man is helpless and fails where creation 

In matchless perfection has wrought. 

God loves it, and clothes it with beauty, 

All nature is gemmed with His thought. 



TREASURES OF THE NIGHT 

The toil and thirst of life 
Had parched my heart 
In restless troubled mood 
I prayed O, day depart! 

Night came, and heaven's pomp was spread 
In starry splendor overhead. 
I walked abroad, looked up and saw 
God's wealth of planets, love and law. 

Countless in the skies above me. 
Suns and stars and planets whirled, 



III 



All the cares of day seemed banished 
From this richer midnight world. 

Labor needs the clearer sunlight, 
Nature loves the tropic day, 
Follow Him when falls the twilight, 
'Neath the stars go forth and pray! 

UNREST 

Our minds how they worry and fret, 
How they tug at life's burdens of doubt ; 

They delve in the earth for relief 
Then mount to the stars to look out. 

So strange and unreal at times 

This current called life to us seems, 

That the seen and wished for alike 
Are shadows afloat in the streams. 

We love, with hearts that wear out, 
Earth's creatures that suffer decay; 

We house, what mortals call truth, 
In brains that wear out day by day. 

We determine this good and that ill ; 

Both condemned and approved is our taste. 
What we covet and prize for its worth 

Other men other times treat as waste. 

With our eyes all defective of sight 
Can the truth but as faulty appear? 

Can our ears, not in concord with sound. 

Tell the heart-beat of health, when they hear? 

We may stand on the headlands of faith 

Seeing waves from beyond kiss the shore 
Tho our souls are transported in bliss, 
112 



Our flesh shrinks in dread at the roar. 

For, redeemed may indeed be the soul 
Ere the body, thru death reaches life; 

Till both are redeemed and made whole 
Must spirit and flesh be at strife. 

Like the ocean that wearies its shores 
Chafes the soul in the body, its prison ; 

Unrest must prevail till He comes 
Till the time of the full restoration. 

ROUTINE 

Spring time comes and brings us promise, 

Tender leaf and bud. 
Summer scatters lovely blossoms, 

In each field and wood; 
Autumn comes with bending harvests, 

Ripened fruit and pod, 
Look, note nature's purpose, progress 

As you walk abroad. 

Then come frosts and storms of winter 

Stripping nature bare. 
Housed with death are bud and blossom. 

All looks dead and sear. 
But the coming sun will loosen 

Winter's icy chain; 
Death to man is only winter, 

Springtime comes again. 

DUTY AND EASE 

Thick and cool lay the shadows 
Under the great green trees; 

Where swaying bough and waving grass 
Invited to summer ease; 
113 



Yet, I walked on worn and dusty 

Along the hot high-way, 
For such I conceived my duty, 

One scorching summer day. 
And yet I reasoned and questioned. 

For my duty tho plain was hard. 
Why choose we toil in the sunshine. 

Why rest 'neath the trees discard? 
Do we choose or only seem to. 

If we do, why choose we the hard? 

On, on, yet I reasoned and questioned 

Till my brain seemed hot as the sun. 
My surroundings in whispers answered; 

"There is pleasure in duty done." 
Duty and pleasure went arm in arm 

When the earth was young and sweet; 
Instead of the hot hard roads of now. 

There were grassy ways for the feet. 
Yes, back in the dim, dim ages, 

The world by sin was jarred; 
And the universe a harmony then, 

Is now but a sad discord. 
No longer they travel arm in arm. 

Over grassy hills and leas. 
It is plain to duty while on the road. 

That pleasure camps under the trees. 
Yet life is for drill, for practice, 

Use of head, of hands and feet! 
If duty drums and wisdom fifes, 

We may rout most foes we meet. 

FENCED IN 

Earth's roads are crooked and narrow 

Mere ribbons 'twixt fence row and hedge 

Lying cool in the woodlands and valleys, 
Winding hot over hill top and ledge. 
114 



Men's lives like the roads they travel 
Are narrow and crooked, fenced in 

By prejudice, custom and fashion, 
By the mandates of virtue and sin. 

We work on our lives as on highways 
Spanning chasm, morass and stream; 

By reason and faith bridging over 
Life deeps, where naught solid is seen. 

We grade and fill thru farm lands 
Thru village and city we pave; 

We get on quite well in fair weadier 
Thru storm and foul weather we slave. 

We are taught from our youth that virtue 
Must ever 'gainst nature's laws fight; 

Eternal, unceasing and bitter; 

With no furlough, no peace or respite. 

So we fight this world as an evil, 
Make our bodies and spirits dread foes, 

Esteeming those worthiest, greatest. 

Who number most woundings and woes. 

The beliefs and opinions of sages. 
The dogmas the schoolmen display, 

With inherited weakness and bias. 
Like fences determine our way. 

So little and narrow and crooked 
Man's life on this planet has been, 

That the toil and the culture of ages 
Still hopelessly leaves him fenced in. 



"5 



THE RIVER OF THOUGHT 

I lay by the open casement 

When the tasks of the day were wrought, 
And my brain was heavy with fragrance, 

Borne in from the fields of thought. 

Then I knew the world's great thinkers 

As roses and lilies are known; 
And I knew the neglected and humble, 

That grow in the wastes alone. 

The mass of the thoughts of thinkers 
And their struggle since time began, 

Seemed an endless, unfruiting endeavor 
To grasp the infinite plan. 

The labors of earth seemed fruitless, 
Mere struggle for crust and bone; 

Only thoughts of the soul and its maker 
Go upward toward the throne. 

Life's fever and fret and worry, 
Earth's revel in cruelty, crime, 

I saw thru the nimbus of wisdom 

Were bounded by judgment and time. 

The flowing of wisdom's great river 

Was watering infinite space; 
The wise were in touch with the current, 

I knew by the light on each face. 

Thought streams were swelling that river 
I felt its swift rush in my brain, 

God's thoughts, and those of his children 
Sweeping on to eternity's main. 



ii6 



Great thoughts of the thinkers about me 
Impinged on the brain and the soul; 

For God and his humblest children 
Are parts of one infinite whole. 

My brain like the brain of Old Prophets, 
Drank the soul flowing vigor in space; 

And light above law, above matter. 

Streamed in from the kingdom of grace. 

The planets all sweeping in circles, 

And truth, not in segments, but whole; 

I saw with the swarm of the nations 

Moving on toward the reign of the soul. 

O, slaves of the earth haste your waking; 

Superstition and doubt drive away. 
With timbrel and harp swell the anthem, 

We are nearing the coming of day. 

O, freemen with spirits immortal, 

Already the dawning appears. 
Shout victory over the mortal; 

Shout triumph over all fears 



DISCONTENT 

No man has reached his utmost growth 

Who still is discontent, 

The soul's immortal while its wings 

On loftier flights are bent. 

While higher ways and wider worlds 

The sun of hope reveals. 

New energies will be supplied 

From fountains unrevealed. 



117 



PARADOX— GOOD AND EVIL 

The world is full of evil and of death 
Is full of poison and unwholesome food, 
And yet is full of blessings and of good; 
Yields nursing sunshine, airs of sweetest breath. 

This world is full of evil and of death. 

I question how this paradox can be. 

For how can things diverse as bad and good, 

Abound and fill immensity? 

And which excels, does bad or good? 

Why is there so much bad and so much good? 

I called on reason with this, ugly why? 

And soon from all the fields of life 

The mind was busy gathering, sorting facts. 

And tracing paths from cradle to the grave. 

Assorting, weighing the incongruous store 

Of bitter and sweet, of blight and bloom. 

Of love and hate, of triumph and defeat; 

Of good and evil, of blessing and of curse, 

Of tears and smiles, of life and death; 

Until I cried, accumulate no more! 

And reason answered "I am out of breath." 

And then, I called upon my soul my faith, 

The just, the good, of all the ages past. 

Why this propinquity of good and bad? 

This law of mind that wars against the flesh? 

For flesh is also under law. 

So that the good I would I do not. 

Then all the world made answer. 
Whoso is free, must have the right to choose : 
And whoso chooses also he rejects. 
Two acts, to do both wisely, 
Man must know shadow from substance 
Must walk in paths where journey evil and good 
Must know the bitterness of tear soaked food. 
Experience, mentor in the school of life 
ii8 



Must teach him, not as fool 
To fall a prey to evil things, 
But how to prove the good, 
And how to hold it fast 
And so accumulating wheat 
From all the harvests of the past 
We may die wise and wealthy, 
Victors over death at last. 



AMBITION 

It silently beckons us on 
To heights we have never attained 
Yet belittles the present while on 
Great tasks our eyes are strained. 

Great tides of blood 
Were swelling in my veins 
Poured by the dawn of manhood 
When high ambition reigns. 

The sweet, delicious pain 
Of hopes that burn in every brain 
Was flooding all my heights; 
I felt the stir of greatness 
Thrilling my startled soul; 
The conscious flow of strength — 
Calling, choose, act, control! 
Waking to energy my laggard mind. 

My heart beat wildly for the unattained. 
So each youth pants and dreams — 
Some great achievement in the years to be 
I fain would have accredited to me. 
So each one vigils toils and struggles on 
From thought to thought from act to act 
From height to height toward truth and fact; 
119 



Thru fields of hope still onward grope, 
Unheeding what around us lies 
Escaping sight, neath cloud and light, 
Things common, plain to better eyes, 
Above, below, on left and right. 
O, souls push stoutly on 
'Till the last height's attained 
Life's Holy Grail once gained 
Defeats will all be gone. 

LOST THOUGHTS 

What beautiful thoughts we often have 

Such as genius in bloom affords. 

Forgetting them we sigh, too bad! 

I failed to put them in words. 

They come a moment, delightful guests; 

Then, silently take their leave. 

Slighted, they seldom come again; 

How often their loss we grieve. 

Regret alone, this refrain affords; 

"I lost them — failed to put them in words." 

So often our minds are vacant, dull. 

Cause, we are prodigal of the best; 

Our own thoughts lost, after others we rush, 

In an eager thoughtless quest. 

We ask, we listen, we think, and read. 
Until ears grow weary, eyes grow hot. 
Till of other men's stuff we know a lot 
Of hear-say, and they-say, and rot. 
We ask, we listen, we garner and read 
What others have thought and wrote; 
But raise small crop of heart or head 
Tho for larger yields they are fit. 
So mostly our talk is borrowed stuff. 
Bizarre and common, little our own; 
Tho we had good enough ideals. 
Wasted in fields home grown. 
120 



Yet we crop and crop and toil and toil 
In rented fields of mind and heart, 
Ever letting our own domain run waste — 
And at death leave little worthy of praise. 

A DAY IN THEBES 

Grand in her ruins by the fruitful Nile 

Lies Thebes — deserted, silent, eloquent. 

Her hundred gates are gone 

Her massive arches broken, 

Palaces and temples tenantless; 

And yet, her stately grandeur 

Still lives on. 

Her mighty walls bear record 
Of her glorious past, chiseled 
In words rich with the story 
Of ambitious life. 

Her eighteen thousand streets 

Deep worn by restless feet 

Of more than thirty centuries ago 

Are trodden now by curious throngs 

Who come eagerly demanding from her 

Broken walls and mummied dead 

Their tales of joy and woe. 

And wisdom out of withered brains 
Seemed borne to me from those 
Who fill her tombs and left 
Their record chiseled on her fanes, 

Saying: "We served our day! 
Great are the tasks of time. 
Greater the chances in eternity! 
Osiris called, we went away — 
A greater leader came to earth — 

121 



Live, man, great is thy day!" 

O, Egypt rich in treasures of the past 
Beautiful in art, in legend, love. 
River and lotus bloom, I turn to thee, 
What John from Patmos saw, 
Alone surpasses thee. 

THE MONUMENT GROUPS 

(Indianapolis, Indiana) 

Massive, ill shapen blocks of stone 
Were all the people saw. 
Who watched the workmen, day by day 
Place them ill balanced, carelessly, 
Stained, seamed, with many a flaw. 
As each unhewn block swung into place 
East and west, on the monument's base. 
The mass saw nothing but great rough stones, 
Nor sensed the semblance of flesh and bones, 
Rough rocks are so commonplace. 

But one, tho his gaze seemed far away. 
Saw forms of beauty that sought the day; 
Saw statues and symbols unwrought; 
Saw a nation's progress, victories, thought. 
And the price at which great things are bought. 
With chisel and mallet he chipped away, 
Dreamed by night and labored by day. 
Uncovered a limb, a trunk, a head. 
Until the groups in triumph said; 
Only the outer crust was dead. 

Finished, the multitude came and praised. 
Looked in wonder, delighted, amazed, 
That the stars and stripes, liberty's chart — 
And all that is dear to a nation's heart — 

122 



Was hid in those once rough stones. 
Very great our debt to world masters, 
To the genius of war and of peace, 
Sculptors, inventors, thinkers, those please 
Who rescue life from waste desolation, 
Clothe in art achievement's decrees. 

BY THE RIVER 

(Ludlow Falls, Ohio) 

You remember, I am thinking my darling 

Of a rock girted stream far away 
On whose margin we sat by the rapids 

'Neath the gloom giving cedars one day 
And watched the unrest of its waters 

Heard its ripple of laughter and moan 
As it sped o'er its low stony pathway 

Flecked steed-like with droppings of foam.. 
It was yoked to a mill, you remember 

And toiled at the slow turning wheel. 
How it hurried and gave signs of worry 

Like the children of Adam all feel. 

It was May you remember my darling 

The soft wind and sunshine were kind 
And nature's great face, paled and brightened 

Like man's when thought stirs the mind. 
In the shallows birds bathed their feathers 

And the robin found mud for her nest 
The wren and the blue-bird were busy 

In labor and love all were blest. 
The blossoms we plucked in the shadows 

Were as plain as the coat of the dove 
And the violets kissed by the sunlight 

Were as blue as the deep sky above. 

You remember to-day too, I am thinking, 
123 



How our hearts and our lives grew as one, 
As we looked down the vistas before us 

And talked of the life unbegun. 
How proudly the sky arched above us, 

How fair stretched the world to our feet, 
Then Eden of old was our Eden; 

No flaming sword guarding the gate. 
Tho that stream pour its waters forever, 

Tho its fountains should never be dry 
It never could tell forth the treasure 

Of a love that never will die. 

Since then, years swiftly have vanished, 

Earth's sunsets and dawns paler grow; 
For even, to souls that love truly 

Time changes, age crowns us with snow. 
O, then while we fondly remember 

Let us think of the Home of the Blest 
Of a place by the Life giving River 

That flows by the Mansions of Rest. 
When there on the marge of that river 

'Neath the boughs of the health giving tree 
Above change and the gloom of earth's cedars 

Transplanted in love we shall be. 



ROBIN'S SONG— THE COMING SPRING 

Full of complaining and faulting the weather 
Abusing the winter and dull skies together 
I went forth at random oppressed by my mood 
And strayed down a path where naked trees stood; 
And there on the cold dead limb of a tree 
A robin sat carolling merrily; 
His heart was so glad he was forced to sing 
And his song was hope in the coming spring. 
He recited his joys so delightfully clear 
The day grew brighter, spring seemed more near. 
124 



Then I mused on the wonderful song I had heard, 

I mused on the life of the timid bird, 

And saw tho he lived in the present like me, 

His song was a song of futurity. 

Then my own roused soul was fain to sing 

Like robin its song of eternal spring. 

A fairer world than this there lies 

Beyond earth's winter and gloomy skies. 

And man like robin if he would sing. 

Must borrow his song from the coming spring. 



U. S. GRANT 
(Died July 23rd, 1885) 

The bells of every city toll 

Its death note let each cannon roll 

O'er land and sea ; 
Let drooping flag and choking sob 
Revolving press electric throb 

Our massive grief express. 
Our nation's boast, the silent man 
With heart to do and brain to plan 

In death lies motionless. 

Hero on every field of life; 
Abroad at home in peace and strife 

Nature's own nobleman. 
Mighty Colossus that thou wert — 
Most sweet and generous of heart 

To friend and foe. 
None ever walked such heights of fame. 
None from the world reaped such acclaim 

As thou didst know. 
Death checks abuse, calls praises forth. 
O'er worthless men and men of worth, 

Wise fools resolves — 
125 



Worthy of guerdon let the crowd 
In sturdy phrases shout aloud 

How Grant excelled. 
Patient in peace, unspoiled in praise, 
Unboasting bravest of the brave 

When foes rebelled. 

No home had malice in his heart, 
Ne'er forced an oath his lips apart, 

Or slanderous word. 
Unlike earth's many sons of fame 
Whose lives but blazon deeds of shame 

Or gore's high tide. 
Faithful to duty everywhere 
In court, in camp, in peace and strife 
The great, the simple acts of life 

He glorified. 

Go lay him writh the noble dead 

Spare pomp and show and martial tread, 

Life's errand done; 
Earth rests the weary aching head 
When heavenward the spirit is fled 

Above change and time. 
Death's royal feast seems over now 
And common lives are dwarfed indeed, 
Time is so dowered by the dead 

With deeds sublime. 



CHILDREN OF THE BRAIN 

(An evening piece) 

The busy day has drifted by 

Upon the stream of time 
And noisy insects far and near 

Are ringing evening's chime. 
126 



The sweet cool shadows kiss the earth 

Beneath the stars' soft light; 
While slow the queenly moon ^ 

Ascends her stately car of night; 
Across the silent fields of space, 

The breath of night is born ; 
And breezy fingers stir the leaves 

Of trees and nodding corn. 

My thoughts — the children of the brain- 
Are wayward In their play 

Grown restless, weary of their home, 
Willful they run away. 

They rummage in the attic vast 
Of all the years they find 

The past great storehouse of our toys 
Broken and left behind. 

There find again some soft warm hand. 
Once held in tender grasp. 

Red ruby lips and loving forms 
With shy eyes downward cast. 

Trinkets of joys, or starry hours 

Still held, in fond embrace 
By memory's holy subtle power 

In spite of time and space. 
I hear my mother's spirit voice 

Again I am at her knee — 
My tangled troubles all unwind 

And leave me fresh and free. 
And so I gain a moment's joy 

And cheat my present cares 
Living again In garden spots 

That bloom amid life's tares. 

Fair locks of friendship still I find 
Past hopes my bosom thrill. 

With tears of joy my eyes are blind 
My heart is tender still. 
127 



I hear again the far off songs 

Once sung so sweet and clear — 
Tho light oi face, and voice of friend 

Are dim to eye and ear. 
I thank my Maker for the past 

With priceless wealth in store, 
Sweet streams revisited, that flow 

With freshness as of yore. 

By grace released at eventide • 

From labor, toil and heat; 
I find good thoughts and deeds 

Rebloom with fragrance fresh and sweet. 
I borrow for age's sandy waste 

Green palm and fountain pool 
Remembered joys my camping place, 

Oases sweet and cool. 

Happy with friend or dog or pet 

Good words, or thrilling story. 
That still hold place in heart and brain, 

Balmed in immortal glory. 
Ah, feverish unfruiting haste 

That rings the curtain down 
Upon the present joys we have 

For those we hope to own. | 

How sadly short is human sight. 

Life's paths how curved, when seen, 
How aches the heart, when looking back 

To miss what might have been. 

In youth assured, we're full of light, 

We rush on age to find. 
Our senses so unfocused are 

We are really half blind. 
When will our spirits own in fee 

Again, the fields of truth. 
The right to which when forfeited, 

Costs us perennial youth. 
128 



THE KISS OF LOVE 

Psyche kissed me on the heart 

When I was a boy, 
Dowered me with love, a start — 

Bashful, shy and coy. 
And I grew a lover fond 

Of earth and sea and sky. 
With affection far beyond 

Terra's pageantry. 

Souls immortal smiled on me 

Won from me my love. 
Fadeless faces beckoned me 

To the realms above. 
And I grew a lover fond 

Of science, truth, and art, 
Of fellowship that lies beyond 

Earth's narrowness of heart. 

In fields of truth my spirit finds 

Delights perpetual flow 
Companionship with kindred minds, 

With souls death cannot know. 
Often we are guests at royal feasts. 

Of changeless things above. 
Soul on heart of soul may rest, 

Where Deity is love. 



ASSURANCE 

(The heavens declare the glory of God, the firma- 
nent showeth His handiwork) 

I look on the wonderful sky 

So permanent, peaceful and bright 
Traversed by solid planets 
129 



Flooding the earth with light 
My troubled heart is rested 

My anxious thoughts are stilled 
By the quiet and peaceful heavens, 

My soul with assurance is filled. 
For I know 'mong the stars, bold science 

Has never discovered a flaw; 
And am sure that man, like the planets, 

Is safe in the arms of law. 
So I ponder and muse in the moonlight 

That silvers the earth and the sea 
And trace through light and shadow 

The plans of eternity. 
And my life is enriched and widened 

By everything I see. 
For He who thought for the planets, 

Thinketh on even me. 

ONLY A PROCESSION 

Since Creation the procession 

Of days has come and gone; 
At night obscured by darkness, 

At day revealed by dawn. 
How many nights were starless 

And wild with sobbing storms; 
How many clouds across the days. 

Have trailed their somber forms. 
Ah, the record is so crowded 

Nothing more may find a place 
Earth-Life a losing battle 

Is the record of each face. 
The record plain of nature 

Writ on all beneath the sun. 
Ere a blossom gains perfection 

Its destruction is begun; 
Ere the sun warms all the winters 

Which the coming year enfold, 
130 



The sun himself will stagger 
'Neath the effort, old and cold. 

Prithee where is there in nature 

Any lamp of promise found? 
That revealeth aught in nature 

Save a lengthened turning round. 
All the planets move in circles 

And the seasons come and go 
Even birds are birds of passage, 

All the oceans ebb and flow. 
And the law of repetition 

Is the edict things obey 
But which shall be the victor 

Growth or decay? 

Out of nature comes no answer 

Save the echoes which repeat 
Life's bridal songs of summer 

Death's winter odes of sleet. 
Earth's law of reproduction 

Means again produced in kind 
Means that nature has no freedom 

No inventiveness, no mind. 
Means that servitude is written 

On the march across the zones, 
Of the seasons in their passage, 

Of the planets falling stones. 

Like the legend of the Phoenix 

From the death pyre of the old 
Rises every plant and creature 

Which the realms of nature hold. 
Like that often quoted army 

That marched up the hill, then down 
Nature climbs her hill of summer 

In the winter marches down. 
There is no light in nature 
131 



That pierces the unknown 
The light that gives her splendor 

Down from above is thrown. 
All the books she prints in blossoms; 

All the wealth she stores away; 
Is but food for worms that perish, 

In the limits of a day. 

There is no light in nature 

Save a purpose, save a plan. 
Breaking through the face of matter, 

Like the spirit shines thru man; 
Showing that the Great Creator 

Omnipresent with His plan, 
Guards the earth so wisely fashioned 

For the wholesome needs of man. 
Creation, a long procession — 

A ceaseless tramping of feet — 
A grand march of the seasons. 

From summer to winter's sleet. 



PICTURED ROCKS 

(Lake Superior) 

Tossing on Superior's billows up and down 

From our steamer's deck 
Pictured rocks, actor like, 

At us laugh and frown. 
Dashed with sunlight for a moment 

Through the mist and spray 
Fancy sees an ancient village 

Dressed for holiday. 
Ruined bridge, dismantled fortress, 

Minaret and tower; 
Ruins older far than any 

Marking human power. 
132 



sphinxlike, on earth's rim, grim facing 

Space, immensity. 
Featured by colossal forces 

Wild intensity, 
Stands this effort of the ages 

Rich in lore 
Of each law's progressive force 

And working power. 

Galleries of mimic wonders, 

Titans stock — 
Idols from the stone age stranded 

Here, on pictured rock. 
Carved by frost king's icy fingers 

Heated in the sun. 
Restless wind and wave promoters, 

Of the work begun. 
Savage Norse kings held their revels 

In your sculptured halls. 
Dirges now of lapping waters 

Sob beneath thy walls. 

Fain to know 

Who wrought these wonders 

By this inland sea 
Back I turn my eyes and ponder 

Till I think I see 
Frost and ice and snow and sunshine 

Starting on a spree; 
Calling wind and wave and tempest, 

To arts revelry. 

Giant builders met in session, 

Planned and wrought and planned, 
Simulating forests, mountains. 

Castles weird and grand. 
Broken arches mutely witness 

Of a mighty past; 
Rock hewn temples thick and solid, 
133 



Held in ruin^s grasp. 
Musing mutely, on these wonders 

And their fate to be, 
Turns my thoughts to human emprise, 

Wrecks along time's sea. 

Back her stately footsteps tracing 

Noting human skill 
Thebes, Babylon, Karnak, others 

Births of human will 
Rise and witness to achievements 

In the realms of man; 
Marking shorelines on the ocean 

Of his widest plan. 
Mighty kings, and mighty nations. 

Robbed, enslaved and built. 
Giant Anaks bearing record 

Of ambition's tilt. 

From the years flows deadly forces, 

Poisonous as asp. 
Ruin zones each mundane effort 

With dominions grasp. 
Yet not wholly doth aught perish 

In this world, we say: 
Matter, form and beauty, only 

Changes day by day. 

O ye rocks, by nature fashioned, 

Temples, altars, free. 
Welcoming each season's worship, 

Creedless, grand are ye ! 
Blest by sun and stars forever, 

Wisdom's Holy See. 
Vibrant winds and waves of water 

Glorious minstrelsy. 
Nature's needy hosts forever 

Worship God in thee. 
134 



i 



COMMUNION 

They are friends whose paths of life meet in the 
temple of the same beautiful thoughts 

I meet my friend; 

At once the light grows sweet, 
The air breathes purer, 

All things seem complete. 

Cares scud away 

As clouds kissed by the sun 
Peace fills the heart 

And discontent is gone. 

Hand clasped in hand — 

AH pathways to the heart 
Fling wide the doors 

That keep our souls apart. 

Thoughts ripple into words 

In rythmic tune. 
Like songs of birds 

In happy days of June. 

With masks thrown off 

We push each veil aside, 
Unbreast our hearts 

And nothing seek to hide. 

In sweet communion; 

Filled with peace and rest; 
On sorted truths 

Our hungry souk we feast. 

Whole loaves few find 

Unmixed with tears, regret, 
But crumbs of good abound, 

Love, hope sustains us yet. 
135 



Dead triumphs yield anew 
Their mummied sweets; 

Past stain and glory 
Each its notice gets. 

Experience, feeble torch, 

The statesman's guide, 
Suns a past world 

Where everything has died. 

From out the charnal-house 

Of husk and chaff, 
Incongruous memories 

Make us weep and laugh. 

Thence bring our relics, 

Lay them side by side, 
A sad review that humbles 

Human pride. 

The light fades swiftly 

When the day is done. 
Thick doubtful shadows 

Rest the past upon. 

And yet dear faces 

Like the light of stars 
Rise in our hearts, 

To cheer us unawares. 

Recount past joys. 

Old disappointments tell, 
Kind words shrink cares. 

Words too, our pleasures swell. 

Perched on the circle 

Of our highest hopes, 
The future's stubborn 
136 



Door before us ope*s. 

Thoughtful and silent, 

Leaning o'er life's brink, 
By torch of faith 

We strive to know, to think. 

Lights go before us, 

Torches of hope and love; 
By simple faith we follow 

Where reason fails to prove. 

But joy we find in the future. 
Pure fountains refreshing sweet; 

Springs of immortal nectar 
That rise our lips to meet. 

We glow with health and beauty 
And our souls in faith are strong; 

We are immortal, we are happy 
And eternity is long. 

EDUCATION 

There is no perfect brain. 

No mind all good. 

No spirit free from sin, 

No faultless man. 

And yet, the greatest and the least 

Thinks, speaks, writes and teaches 

His faulty wisdom to the world. 

Schools sow their theories. 
Evil and good in every field ; 
Hence, diverse as all the whims of mind 
Is the mixed crop our poor brains yield. 
Black is not white, tho science 
Shakes the fact and breeds a doubt 
137 



Gainsays the bottom facts on which we rest- 
Blows common truths like straws about. 

Tho every sage should rise 

And to each youth explain 

Every experience (that comes to flesh) 

Minute and wisely, as Solomon 

Wrote on vegetation, from the 

Frailest lichen to the stateliest tree; 

Would it avail to satisfy 

Our longing after the untried? 

Nay! ear, eye, smell, taste, touch. 
Every cell of brain and capability of heart 
Imperfect, yet imperious. 
Demands experience for itself. 
Experience is the university of God 
The school in which His children 
Learn the lessons of this dual life. 

One thrill of love that spreads its color 
On the cheek and conquers the fierce eye 
With tenderness — mother's development — 
Is worth more than all the mere recitals 
Ever made by tongue or pen. 
Thought must tent within the brain 
In mighty companies, before the 
Glowing embers of their entertainment 
Warms into life our cardinal desires. 

There is no nourishment in hearsay, 
Small satisfaction in the untried. 
Endeavor, action, experience. 
Are the meat on which every Caesar feeds. 



138 



MENTAL GUESTS 

Rare grains of thought 
In some far off brain 
Have grown and fruited. 
Like fog from the main 
Thought is blowing toward me — 
A possible rain of new ideas 
May visit my brain. 

Mental vitalities live, no doubt 

Wander at will the world about 

And stop to brood 

In the brains of men 

When condition favors. 

He is a prophet from God to men 

Who welcomes these guests 

To the upper chamber 

When Deity entertains. 

He bares his soul and turns his ear 

To catch the stir of coming events. 

The spirit realm above nature lies 

Far sweeping with potent energies; 

The birdlike soul here lives between 

An upper and a nether scene. 

Two worlds our home, yet we dwell 

Chiefly below the spiritual. 

Resting on earth with head thrown back, 

Ideas on their meteor track we plainly see, 

We catch their light, we feel the glow 

And brain, heart, soul, their youth renew. 

RIGHT THINKING 

Thoughts grow in the brain like flowers 
Or else they grow like weeds ; 

We can seldom account for either, 
Seldom know whence come the seeds. 
139 



When the beautiful good and true 
Pre-empt the heart and the brain 

Clean minded men and women grow, 
As flowers in sunshine and rain. 

But if seeds of evil and passion 
Spring up and choke the good; 

Sin will nest in the heart and then 
Uncanny becomes life's brood. 

The will must ever be regnant, 
Wisdom must choose our way, 

And conscience obeyed and honored 
Never snubbed or sent away. 

Like the price of eternal freedom 
Must vigilance be set down 

As the price each human being pays 
For a character sweet and sound. 

SOME DAY 

(The truth shall make us free) 

These gates of flesh so bar the way 
While in our present thrall 

By eye of faith alone we see 
God's writing on the wall. 

Some day the viewless latch will lift 
And nature's doors divide 

And the closed chambers of the world 
To us will open wide. 

Then shall the shores of truth appear 
The fogs all blown away 

And we escaped from toil and fear 
Shall land and know the way. 
140 



BIRDS OF PASSAGE 

Come mate and plume your feathers, 
The time has come to sing, 

For the sun is throwing kisses 
At the earth, it is nearly spring. 

Soon, all life will feel the rapture, 
'Tis time we are on the wing. 

Let our northward flight be merry. 
Make the air with music ring. 

For the sun is throwing kisses 
At the earth, it is nearly spring. 

Let us join the birds of summer 
Life northward goes a-wooing. 

There's no time to lose in going, 
Soon mating time it will bring, 

For the sun is throwing kisses 
At the earth, it is nearly spring. 

Let us now prepare for summer 
And the duties it will bring. 

We shall need a nest and shelter; 

We must toil as well as sing. 
When the ardent kiss of summer 

Shall bid adieu to spring. 
There is pay for toil and brooding 

In the nestlings it will bring. 

The world will be the brighter — 
For the songs our children sing — 

When the sun, the king of summer, 
Shall throw kisses at next spring. 



141 



DREAMS OF LIGHT 

Shall they too fade, those dreams of light, 
That lift our souls at times beyond the night 
Where purpose rises 'bove the grind of care 
Spirit communings on the wings of prayer; 
Brief visits to the heart's lost home 
Where hope casts not its fruit 
Where love hath speech to suit 
Where w^ant's keen voice is mute. 
Moments supreme and vi^onderfully fair. 

When high resolves out of the heart takes flight 
And swiftly lift us into God's clear sight, 
Where for the moment, there's no blot or stain, 
No ache in heart or trouble in the brain. 
Peaks crowned with light above this level plain; 
Shall they remain, eternally possessed, remain? 
Or are they Jack-O-Lantern's light 
Doomed to swift death and endless night? 

Dear Heart, dream on, dream dreams of light; 
Sweet, noble thoughts soar up on pinions white, 
And high resolves oft make life's darkest way 
Kindle with radiance, like the dawn of day. 
Crown one swift minute with the glow of hope, 
Point one dull eye along the upward slope. 
Smite with love's sweet and matchless power 
Cold-hearts to live in warmth, if but an hour. 

Lives short or long are mostly commonplace 
Immortal glory smites but once each face. 
When on a face of flesh that sweet light falls 
Doubts meet defeat, as truth upon us calls. 
What we here briefly taste of bliss 
Foreshadows triumph's final dewy kiss. 
Tho death here claims, the most we do or dare; 
Still dream of light, of life, not death and care. 
Rare is the joy of living one brief day 
142 



Where love and life at home immortal play. 
They who look up with grief are never choked, 
No door of faith and hope is ever locked. 
Companioned, even now with flesh and blood 
Souls may unslave sometimes, and take the road, 
Wherever choice invites, or beauty dwells. 
Pluck flowers of truth or spirit immortelles. 
Rare Lotus Flowers that feast the soul — a view 
Here now called dreams, bright-shadows of the true. 
And sometime, when the last tear shall be shed — 
Glory shall smite our cheeks, all troubles fled. 



THE LAND OF HOPE 

The land of hope 

With friendly shores. 

Lies far beyond 

Life's known Azores, 

Whence we too sail 

Thru storm and shine. 

With locks oft wet 

With dew and brine. 

All, all must sail the stream of time. 

Hope never fails, 

Tho far we sail 

On unknown seas. 

To reach some gate — 

Tho long endure 

Some heavy fate, 

The torch of Hope 

Still lights some shore. 

Where we arrived on time. 

Shall find life asks no more. 

Hope betters life 
By all that's good, 
143 



Illumines death 
With cloudless light, 
Reveals bright dawns 
Where reason fails; 
Where eyes see nothing 
Hope sheds light. 

From ports of youth 
We sail and sail! 
O'er unknown seas 
Toward longed for shores 
Where doubts shall end 
The best be gained. 
Where faith finds God 
And all is good 
At last is good. 

Fair is the land 

The soul descries 

Beyond the sight 

Of human eyes, 

There some day 

Disappointment's night 

Shall vanish into sweetest light, 

And we shall find the land of Hope. 

ON SHORE 

Youth's restless tide was swelling in my veins, 

And endless stretched the world before my sight ; 
Ambition stirred my soul with longed for gains. 

And ardent hope clothed every path with light. 
I struggled for the prizes of the world ; 

For wealth, position and a deathless name, 
Time thinned my blood and sapped my strength 

And faded every color worn by fame. 
I noted everything within my sight, 

Success and failure on life's level main; 
144 



Wrecks mark the conquest of time's stormy night, 
The end of muscle, plans, material gain. 

I saw the mounds, the bodies washed ashore 
And knew matter alone was wrecked. 

The Soul, unharmed had reached the other shore. 

CHEERFUL ADVICE 

Never let your heart be troubled 

Note the sunshine sweet — 
Laugh and all your joys are doubled 

Smile on all you meet. 
Friends will give you hearty welcome 

While you bring good cheer; 
If with songs and smiles you come. 

All will praise you dear. 

Never murmur or complain 

At what has been, or is; 
Accept things as they are, in fine, 

Make them a source of bliss. 
Frown not though your lot is hard 

Smile away your pain 
Remember joy wins reward — 

Sorrow is pleasure slain. 

THE TRAGEDY OF HATE 

The tides come in 

The tides go out ; 

The sea is never at rest, 

By vexing winds 

It is blown about 

Yet follows law's behest. 

The heart, red sea of life; 
The heart is never at rest; 
Hath tides of love 
145 



And tides of hate 

Passion currents that never abate, 

Obeying life's behest. 

O, heart of love so sweet 
Love maketh life complete 
So sweet is love. 
But O, if filled with hate 
Love meets a dreadful fate 
Hate killeth love. 

The heart, red sea of life, 

Where love should rest; 

Hath storms of aches and strife 

Obeying life's behest. 

Yet, when by grace made sweet, 

Love killeth hate complete. 

I HELD HER HAND 

I held her hand, and felt the thrill 

Of pure warm blood. 
1 looked into her eyes and saw 

Love's brimming flood. 

Her face was fair, her graceful form 

Outrivaled art, 
Sweet, every grace of womanhood 

Bloomed in her heart. 

I held her hand, and while the thrill 
Of new life trembled in my soul 

I realized a touch, a glance 

May sweep us under Love's control. 

True word, sweet speech tho potent all, 

Can ne'er make known 
The power of speechless glance and touch 

That guards Love's Throne. 
146 



I held her hand, I saw her face 

In spirit rapture glow 
When Love's lamp burns within the heart 

There is light enough for two. 

I held her hand, I felt 

The currents of a life 
In bounding billows flow. 

They broke upon my own, and so I know 
On all our common senses love builds 

And rules below. 



GUEST OF TWO WORLDS 

The dim unknown around us lies 
Where shadowy truths before our eyes 

Flit to and fro; 
But what they mean, whence come or go, 
How few with certainty may know — 
Spirit and matter mingle so 

In strange disguise. 

I wish I knew what matter is, 
Its wondrous forms and tendencies 

Of which I am part, 
Ever the soul asks questions here. 
Answers are faint, from far and near 
Some voice commands the listening ear, 

Some love the heart. 

Our souls leap with a glad surprise 
When visions far and faint arise 

To lure us on. 
When we have crossed the border land 
Will this side vanish, sight and heart, 
Will disappointments all depart. 

Will doubts be gone? 
147 



The spirit world around us lies, 
We strain our eager, restless eyes 

For higher good. 
Like Tantalus, we seek the prize. 
But ever disappointments rise 
Before is reached the full supply 

Of living food. 

Do lilies know why lilies grow, 
Or brooks or roses why they are so, 

So beautiful? 
Nature in high or low estate 
Is hidden, locked and bound in fate; 
Tethered, each life sings to its mate 

The dreams of love. 

Each creature hath appointed place. 
Its span of time, its point in space, 

And load of care. 
Lichen and worm and mortal man 
Are parts of one gigantic plan. 
Each has a sphere to fill, yet can 

O'er flow with grace. 

Love, song and beauty, bloom and scent 
Are gifts; rewards of merit meant 
To tempt us up the steep ascent 

Of nature's plan. 
And when we gain earth's topmost peak, 
We stand alone; with naught to seek 

But God and man. 

And having reached that high estate. 
Where nature can't participate 

In higher quest. 
Horizon widened light still haze. 
Backward and forward, both I gaze, 

148 



Asking two worlds in dumb amaze, 
Of which I am guest. 

I wish I knew what spirit is, 
Its potent possibilities. 

Of which I am a part. 
Why do we waste earth, life and love? 
Why thirst futurity to prove? 
Why pants the soul to rise above 

Earth's true warm heart? 

Earth light is sweet, and love is sweet, 
Tho clothed in flesh our spirits meet 

While here below. 
Here pleasure's streams are sweet and wide, 
Here wisdom's plans in law abide. 
Why thirst we for the other side. 

The unknown to know? 

One luminous hour by love's decree 
Comes once on earth to you, to me, 

By God's command. 
Yet loud or low we make complaint 
Of wind and tide, sinner and saint. 
And oft 'twixt fact and faith we faint 

While here we stand. 

It must be in some lovelier place 
Redeemed, immortal, face to face. 

At home we'll stand. 
Where there's no death or lack of room 
Where not one blossom casts its bloom — 
With truth, love, God and friends, 

On either hand. 

About the well of life I read. 
Shall gather all the spirits freed 
Whose hope, love, faith, 
149 



On well fought fields 'gainst selfishness, 
Bigotry, greed, hate, littleness. 
Won victories in earth's shadow-land 
O'er doubt and death. 

IMMORTELLES 

Let us gather each day the flowers of thought 

That bloom in the fields of the mind, 
Let the best in a fragrant verse be wrought, 

Thought in color and bloom let us bind. 
There's beauty enough in the commonplace 

To make life an unending song. 
If we garner the beautiful day by day 

No year should seem barren or long. 
Such daily gleanings would make a song 

Sweet mete for the harp of life. 
For no other music our ears should long, 

Music is the blossom of strife. 

Of rarest flowers there will be no lack 

When each act and effort shall bloom. 
The simplest things well done in fact, 

Bear blossoms of rich perfume. 
The royal flowers that bloom above 

Their common neighbors, are Hope and Love; 
While vines of Friendship with tendrils curled 

Trail wonderful blossoms throughout the world. 
Humanity's soil Is so blest by the Lord 

That fragrance follows kind act and word. 
Earth's simplest service suffers no loss, 

Tho rendered 'twixt thieves upon the cross. 

NATURE'S VICTORY 

A hectic flush is on the leaves, 

A change pervades the air 
Death welcomes winter, verdure grieves, 

Life struggles with despair. 
150 



Nature in pain, tho looking well, 

Winter is surely near ; 
When Heims departs the buds will swell 

Spring comes with every year. 

A surface sorrow sweeps the earth, 

Yet all is well we know; 
Spring will return, give nature birth, 

After the north winds blow. 

This annual lesson nature gives 

To prove death's but asleep; 
Nature for losses never grieves 

Her tryst with life she keeps. 

Sad hearts, beyond death's grassy mounds 

Dismiss your tears and see 
Unfading spring is on its rounds — 

Behold life's victory. 

THE SUN OF THE SOUL 

The dead leaves of autumn around us were falling. 
Tired nature was hastening to close up the year; 

To the South! the South! the song birds were call- 
ing 
As I strolled, a young lover with Phyllis my dear. 

We two had known friendship in youth's happy 
hours 
When spring scatter'd blossoms on valley and 
plain ; 
Our fond love had shared the warm glow of sum- 
mer. 
Like nature when blest with dew, sunshine and 
rain. 

A silence prophetic pervaded the hours, 

We paled, for the North-voice whispered of death, 
151 



To lovers most shocking, no grief for the flowers 
Wed to ruin all nature seemed holding its breath. 

From the hill tops we noted the day was declining 
Watched the slant rays — from the West stream- 
ing on. 
When Phyllis — her head on my shoulder reclining — 
Said: "Is love the soul's sun when the day-god's 
withdrawn ? 

Here hearts have their winters, with God are the 
reasons ; 
Shall we still be in love when the years are all 
gone ?" 
"Dear Phyllis," I answered, — "The soul has its sea- 
sons; 
Love, the sun of the Soul brings eternity's dawn." 



DAYS OF HEAVEN ON THE EARTH 

Wandering one day. 

By a clear winding stream ; 

I met spring on the way. 

Earth was clothed in a dream. 

The birds sang of love; 

Hope sprang from each sod, 
And above and below 

Was the glory of God. 

I exclaimed in my soul 

What a beautiful mind 
God must have, to control 

Just one day of this kind. 

Peace, wisdom had kissed. 
Smiles banished each frown. 



*Twas a day to earth promised 
From Heaven sent down. 

Encompassed with glory 
Seemed each step I trod: 

Earth was full of His Story, 
As the heaven of God. 



THE GARDENER'S PROPOSAL 

My heart is a garden, my lady fair, 
It has wonderful soil, all plants grow there. 
But the good alone will bloom and bear 
If sunned with love and tended with care. 

Will you be my gardener my lady fair, 

Are you willing to toil, to wait, forbear? 

My heart is my garden my lady fair; 

Will you sun it with love and tend it with care? 

My heart is my garden my lady fair. 

Will you sun it with love and keep it with care? 

Tho my garden's well sheltered my lady fair; 
Unwatched, untended the weeds grow there. 
It may cost you sleep, pain, tears and prayer, 
To be my gardener my lady fair. 
It may cost you sleep, pain, tears and prayer, 
To be my gardener my lady fair. 

Yes I'll be your gardener my gentle sir. 
What cannot be helped I will meekly endure. 
My heart like yours was fashioned for bliss, 
And my mouth like yours for love's best kiss, 
My heart like yours, was fashioned for bliss. 
And my mouth like yours for love's best kiss. 

Yes, I'll be your gardener my gentle sirt 
153 



But my heart needs tending lest hate grow there. 
If you'll guard it with kindness, keep it with care 
We both shall be happy with love to spare. 
If you'll guard it with kindness, keep it with care, 
We both shall be happy with love to spare. 

We both must be gardeners, then he said, 
For it seems each heart is in constant need, 
To sun it with love and sweeten this life, 
We both must be gardeners, man and wife, 
To sun it with love and sweeten this life, 
We both must be gardeners, man and wife. 



FATHER'S FACE 

(A Study) 

How often I looked in his manly face 
With the wondering eyes of a child, 

And tried to answer the question, why 
He silently frowned or smiled. 

I knew his burden of daily toil, 
I knew of his measure of care, 

A living to wring from hostile soil 
For a family schooling and care. 

For a wife and children have many wants 
And with children their needs increase 

While demands of charity, church and state 
Are enough to wreck one's peace. 

Yet he was never a moody man 

Tho of contemplative air; 
His spirit and form were straight, unbent 

With the burdens of toil and care. 

154 



The lights on his face were shades of thought 
That fell from the sky of his mind ; 

I saw the shadows but strove in vain 
To read the thoughts behind. 

I have seen his face aglow with light 

As bright as the morning sun, 
Increase to noon, then wane to night, 

When the labor of thought was done. 

And again a light as peaceful and sweet 
As the moon's o'er spread his face 

When thoughts of future peace and rest 
Shone in from the land of grace. 

Aye! good and evil their battles fight 

In every heart and brain. 
While the lights and shadows on each face 

Are banners of joy and pain. 

OUTGROWN 

The past has been rich 
With beautiful thoughts, 
With manifold pleasures 
Which soon show their spots, 
Good friends with bright faces, 
Great hearts full of cheer, 
From the past's faded blossoms 
Sweet fragrance drifts here. 
But the faces once bright 
Have grown thin and pale 

Good stories oft told. 
Like old wit has grown stale. 
There was beauty and strength, 
Much goodness and worth 
But it all mixed with clay, 
155 



Change rules in the earth. 
The past had its feasts 
For the stomach and brain 
But the relish has vanished, 
They tempt not again. 

By experience we learn 

In the midst of life's years 

The eye that looks back 

Soon is brimming in tears. 

Ever empty of hand 

And hungry of heart, 

The present is full of longing; 

Man aimlessly turns 'twixt 

Memory and hope 

From past and future thronging. 

For rummage the past the best one can, 

It is ever outgrown by the growing man. 

Life's a heart throb, plus the future. 

Little past we find. 
That suits our mood 
That comforts the mind 
Or soothes the blood. 
For the victories we prize 
Have never been won; 
The great things we would do, 
We have never begun; 
The story we would write 
Has never been told, 
The poem is future 
We long to unfold. 

Our lives must ever 

Be lived anew. 

No matter how clever 



156 



Age brings faults to view 
Love and friendship 
May not conceal them. 

But the future invites us 
And freshens our blood; 
There, is room for ambition, 
There, hope pours her flood; 
Immortal is life in the future. 

Forth then with the dawn — each morning 
Brave of purpose cheerful and strong, 
Here toil and endeavor are nothing, 
For the future is endlessly long. 

The steps of the stairs we're ascending 
Pass from lesser to greater on high. 
Up, up, eager, earnest keep climbing! 
Lest found undersized when you die. 

EGYPT AND THE NILE 

Just as of old, the Nile is flowing on 
Thru leagues of sandy plains. 
Cleaving great deserts hot and lone. 
Five thousand years of life lie dead 
Beside this fruitful stream. 
Marked by crushed cities, temples. 
Homes, that show no taper's gleam. 

Lifegiving, fresh and sweet thy current flows, 
Mile wide thru leagues of drifting sand. 
Causing on right and left a barren-land 
To live and blossom as the rose. 
O river, thou art life, heart, blood 
To everything that needs a draught of bliss. 
Thy far off source sends treasure like a flood, 
Making a land of plenty laziness and love. 
157 



O, Egypt, great and mighty was thy past, 
Yet all thy grandeur was to ruin wed, 
Thy sons and daughters all are mummied. 
Thy wondrous tombs and palaces time ravished, 
Great learning wasted, art and library gone, 
Ruin only, lives mentor, as time rushes on. 
Thy gods once worshiped of color and stone; 
Now merchandise only ; their godship has flown. 

The tongues of thy ruins stoutly proclaim 

How once, your children, sought pleasure and fame. 

Your rulers, builders and toilers are gone, 

Sol smiles on the land the river flows on. 

O ghosts of the past, we behold you 

Sipping bliss from the vanishing years; 

Glory, honor, achievements humbled 

E'en your sphinx sadly mar'd seems in tears. 

Your obelisks captured, antiques shipped abroad, 
All nations enriched by what you have sowed. 
Of boundless abundance the glad news was borne. 
Foreign want coined the proverb, "In Egypt is corn." 
Once country of refuge, broad minded and fair. 
The world sought thy learning, enjoyed thy care. 
Jacob, Abraham, Joseph and Mary came here, 
Sought wisdom, bread, safety — thy visitors were. 

Cleopatra's wild love, of thy deserts was born 
Her ripe form and beauty a Nile-river charm. 
All gone: yet they jewel thy splendor of old; 
Men, women of worth are more than pure gold. 
Kings depart, toilers die, works remain. 
Time wastes all monuments builded in vain. 

Rare Memnon, whose music once greeted the 

dawn — 
Rent, mangled stands silent as change rushes on. 
The march of the modern, the new, but proclaim 

158 



That waste of centuries burgeons thy fame. 

O river, O Egypt, with dead like the sand! 

Ruin girdles thy past, decrepit's the land. 

Look on Memphis, on Karnak what time has with- 
stood. 

Hear a miracle voice, The Nile's turned to blood, 

Note thick darkness falling, deliverance night; 

Sun, moon, stars obscured — three days void of light. 

Royal heart, ten times relentless in the long ago. 

Grieved the voice of mercy calling, Let my people 
go! 

Ego, vaulting pride, ambition, stubborn was, and 
dumb. 

When the first born of your people died in every 
home. 

The god of nations rules, hath called thee down! 

Empires like men to final judgment come. 

Thou cradle place of life from first to last, 

What restless centuries have o'er thee past. 

The God of Nations rules! past is thy day 
Empires like men. His sovereign will obey. 
The earth abides — The works of men decay! 
Still as of old the sun bestows its heat, 
The moon and stars their stately rounds repeat. 
Just as of old the sourceful Nile flows on. 
Change rules on earth, thy mighty hosts are gone ! 



MEDITERRANEAN SEA 

(Steamship Celtic) 

I love, I love the flowing sea, 
Its boundless might, its mystery, 
Its many moods, its smiles and frowns, 
The matchless sky and clouds it owns. 

159 



What restless winds play o'er thy breast! 
The moon disturbs thy daily rest 
For on the Empire of the sea 
Force rules with wanton majesty. 
Titanic, mighty, full of awe 
Cared for and safe in lap of law. 

The centuries have come and gone 
Still as in youth thy tides roll on. 
O, cheerful, mighty, jovial sea — 
I look, I love, I envy thee. 
On land all things are full of scars 
But thy deep breast no wounding mars 
Thy cemet'ries are out of sight; 
Thy troubles buried in the night 
No shaft, no tomb shows pride of grief 
In silence sorrow finds relief. 

Thy legends are thy broken spars 

Thy sentinels the silent stars ; 

Yet in thy realms of peaceful sleep 

'Mid flower gardens safe and deep 

Life blossoms, lives and moves about 

Free from the cankering cares of doubt. 

If but my pilot sails with me 

I'm safe on land, safe on the sea. 

And when thy waves shall roll no more 

I shall have reached some farther shore 

Unharmed, to live forevermore. 

HOPES THAT FAIL 

Under the Lindens 
They walked one night 
Clasping each a hand ; 
The stars shone bright 
Their talk was sweet 
All vistas of life seemed grand. 
1 60 



He was a soldier, manly, straight, 
She was a maiden fair; 
He coveted medals won in fight, 
She the jewels of love and care; 
Each trusted the future far or near, 
Both, strong of heart and hand. 

Engaged they parted, as lovers may. 
He to war and the fields of strife, 
She prayed for peace, the coming day 
When she should become his wife. 
Alas for hopes and loves that fail 
In this human span of life. 

He in a hopeless charge was slain. 
She died of a broken heart. 
And over the Lindens now they say 
When moon and stars shine grand 
A phantom pair glides thru the air. 
Each holding the other's hand. 

MONTREAUX, SWITZERLAND 

Between the mountains' swelling breasts 
Montreaux in charming beauty rests; 
Proud of her castle, lake and towers. 
Her ivied walls and fragrant flowers. 
O'er town and lake the white gulls fly, 
On terraced slopes the vineyards lie. 
Arched over all a sapphire sky 
Stretches like fields in Arcady. 

And all who come too soon must go 
Beyond its spell ; and only know 
The name it bears. To all it seems 
A city set in matchless dreams, 
Of waking dawns and fairy nights 
Of nature's changing charms, delights; 
i6l 



Where soul and body both are fed 
Of those who pass with reverent tread, 

THE JUNGFRAU 

(Switzerland) 

The Red October o'er the Alps 
Strays painted in autumnal hues; 

1 turn my eyes from slope to slope, 
Behold a thousand changing views. 

Thru valleys rich the Leutschine flows, 
Fed by unnumbered Alpine streams, 

A nature-song of murmuring sounds 

That soothes the ear and calls to dreams. 

Snow veiled, in glaciers clad 

The vestal Jungfrau stands; 
Her frozen beauty blushing in the sun, 

A winter Masterpiece in ice, a nun. 

The drowsy bells betray the grazing lands. 

And scattered chalets tell of home and love; 
Hath earth a setting, anywhere, more grand 

Or nature stairs to nobler views above. 

THE MOTHER-NESS OF NATURE 

The night is a great black mammy, 
Who with motherly love, they say; 
Receives the setting sun in her arms 
And closes the eyes of day. 

Then the noisy earth swings silent 
Thru the dusky fields of space; 
While stars keep watch in the distance 
O'er the sleeping human race. 
162 



As man — I think and ponder — 
As a weary child I find 
The motherliness of nature 
Founts in the eternal mind. 

THE MAN IS NOT A FAILURE WHO DIES 
TRYING 

Is the world any richer because I was born? 
I have labored in broad fields of wheat, of corn. 
Some things I have written, some things have said, 
Great things I intended, but little I did. 

For self, for others, I garnered some pelf, 
But is the world richer because of myself? 
Some things I mended some things I made, 
Much, much, I have ruined, learning life's trade. 

Is the world any better because of my birth? 
Have I added aught to humanity's worth? 
Has my struggle for others, my effort for gain. 
Put a smile on a face, eased one heart of pain? 

Life what is thy errand, fame what is thy worth? 
In the end does it matter, condition or birth? 
Human hosts, good and evil forever go forth. 
Love, service mark man, of more than mere earth. 

AS MAN THINKETH SO IS HE 

The child that oftenest ponders the right 
And seldomest thinks of the wrong 

Will develop a character cheerful and bright, 
Symmetrical, straight and strong. 

While the one who oftenest ponders the wrong 

And shrinks from the truth's clear light 
Will be crooked, uncanny, and cruel if strong, 

163 



A tiger that preys by night. 

The pursuit of the mind Is a law of life 
That springs from a natural bent; 

It Is choice makes us evil or good, 
And choice betrays the Intent. 



IF GOD BE GOD FOLLOW HIM 

Diana lost her worshipers, 

Long, long ago. 
Lost her everything but art 

She had fallen so; 
A thing of trade, Apollo stands 

A shapely figure, true. 
No Devotee he now commands 

He lost his godship too. 

Fair Greece, proud Rome, old Pagar world 

Your idols have decayed, 
The years have wasted all your gods, 

The greatest ever made. 
The wisdom of the centuries 

Has pulled their shrines apart; 
A god debased is worthless now, 

Save as a thing of Art. 

When truth and light came to the world 

The false religions fled. 
Since Christ the crucified arose 

All other gods are dead. 
Now Christ's are all the worshipers 

He lives, He reigns, He saves; 
He vanquished sin and death and hell 

And calls men from their graves. 



164 



THE DEGENERATE 

There are those who will rebel ; 
There are feet turned down to hell; 
Wintry hearts froze hard by hate, 
Brains like barren fields turned waste. 

Drifting farther from the right, 
Drifting farther from the light, 
Hearing naught but evil's voice. 
Drifting from the power of choice. 

Growing sour day by day. 
Caring less what people say. 
Sowing tares in bitter mood 
Reaping crime's unsavory food. 

Tarnishing the family name, 
Lost at last all sense of shame. 
Harking but to evil's voice, 
Drifting from the power of choice. 

AFTER MANY YEARS 

Once more then we meet 
As in days gone before 
May our hearts be as sweet 
As in youth's sunny hour. 

Shall we kiss? Yes, kiss 

For the days of Langsyne. 

What, a tear? Pray excuse me, 

Don't bathe me in brine. 

A smile is the banner of bliss, 

True joy is immortal my dear. 

Tho our lips summer dried 
Tap no fountain of youth 
Tho there's snow in our hair 

165 



Yet, while love warms the heart 
Sweet springtime immortal is there. 

I see by drops that moisten your face 
'Tis a shower the summer clouds bring, 
The rose on your cheek, the love in your eye, 
Burst forth as the blossoms of spring. 

THE SPEECH OF YEARS 

(To an Octogenarian) 

Four score and one 

Swift years have run 

Their changeful circuits round the sun 

Since first your baby life begun. 

Today review 

Your joys and fears, 

Con o'er life's wealth 

Sweet gain of years. 

How stands the score 

Of wrong and right? 

How many days were black as night? 

How many full of love and light? 

I know we say 

Half night, half day; 

Hast found it so? There is no night 

To those who look above for light. 

Thru one and eighty 
Years complete 
Your heart kept tender 
Warm and sweet. 
And so I know 
Love conquers woe; 

Light from above down streaming, sweet, 
Keeps rising shadows 'neath the feet. 
i66 



PROGRESS 

By the slow logic of the brain 

We forge our laws 
Toiling to trace the hidden chain 

Effect and cause. 
Pruned by the judgment of mankind 

Things better grow. 
But wisdom from experience learned 

Comes hard and slow. 

Because the logic of events 

Like wrong and right 
Are relative to time and place 

And point of sight. 
Events at times amass 

And force results; 
Life's best watched efforts 

Are not free from faults. 

Experience too, whatever it may be 

Is relative to every you and me ; 
Results lack uniformity, alas! 
Who knows, O changeful earth, 
What time will bring to pass. 



TO A CANARY 

Tell me philosophic mite, 
The secret of your singing. 
All day long you pour your song 
Like joy bells gladly ringing. 

Science says, your brain's too small 
For reasoning and thinking. 
What endowment if at all, 
Can you boast but singing? 
167 



Just a speck of life and song, 
Yet, you are happy all day long, 
Trilling music sweet and clear 
Shaking tons of atmosphere. 

With one talent, only one, 
Your song lasts from sun to sun. 
Man, joy's secret would you know? 
Use your talents as you go. 

Then no trouble will befall 
Palace, cottage, hovel, stall; 
Use your gifts however small, 
Condition matters not at all. 

Were it right Vd envy you. 
For the path of song you leave. 
Man more brilliantly endowed 
Mars his days with grief and wrong. 
Discord mars his every song. 

VOICES OF THE NIGHT 

The night drags slowly by, 

A meteor crosses the sky 

A fox howls on the hill; 

The winds are laid and still 

I watched the spectral moon 

Roll west thru the stars away, 

I look to the east and cry, come soon 

O, sun, with the light of day! 

The horned owl calls to his mate, 
"Sad, sad is the story of fate." 
The watch dog's dolefull bark 
Quickens ghost wraiths in the dark. 
I note the procession move on. 
The sounds and sights of the night, 
i68 



I hear as I vigil alone, 

The song of a singer that's gone. 

Hoof beats with no rider in sight; 

So, slowly the night drags by 

Its voices and sounds toward the light; 

I feel its chill in my heart — 

Pale stars keep watch in the sky, 

I look, and listen, and start, 

O, fain would I rest and sleep, 

But my eyelids refuse to close; 

Troubled is the vigil I keep, 

Akin to night's restless respose. 

THE DEAD PRESIDENT 

(James A. Garfield) 

O, Nation of triumphs weep sadly to-day, 
At last it is finished; the assassin hath sway. 
Our chieftain hath perished more ignobly far 
Than by hands of injured ones fell the late Czar. 

Pride over the nation breathed boastful and loud 
From earth's every quarter we called to the crowd 
They came sowing evil abroad in the land 
Bold envy has triumphed, low schemers have 
planned. 

Now the heart of the Nation is heavy as lead, 
For a righteous man ceaseth, a martyr is dead ; 
Each state drape in mourning, give gladness no place 
For the giant of sorrow has smitten each face. 

And shadows of trouble hang heavy and chill 
On mountain and river, on valley and hill. 
The White House is silent, profaned by a crime 
Charged up to our freedom, reproach of all time. 
169 



O, nation of progress and conquerless might, 
Give heed to the lesson, look well to the blight, 
The license of evil, the tares 'mongst the v^heat. 
Lest the shame of the present prove ruin complete. 

Ye waves of Atlantic chant sadly to-day 
The Nation's great heart doth at Elberon lay; 
And our breast heaving sobs, irrespective of clan 
All join you, lamenting the martyr, the man. 



THE CONQUEROR 

[Fame is more than an occasional ride 
In the ink chariot of the public press'] 

Behold the hero of the day 
A simple modest man of clay 
Who won the heights of great renown 
Ignoble actions frowning down. 
A kindly soul and mind agree 
With modest manners, all will see, 
When Honor comes. 

He won the giddy heights of fame 
With spotless hands unsullied name. 
The greatest nation's foremost man 
With heart to dare and brain to plan 
Has wrought, achieved victorious days. 
Do not forget noise is not praise. 
When Merit comes. 

Familiar he with noise of war 
Death sounding guns of common roar. 
Give the true hero nobler praise. 
Than yell and steam and powder raise. 
Wreathe immortelles, things fadeless give! 

170 



That, like his own great acts will live, 
When Valor comes. 

PEARLS AND ROSES 

O, where are my pearls and roses, 

My jewels of long ago? 
So many and each one priceless! 

In youth they charmed me so. 

I know they have not perished, 
Tho they vanished long ago; 

They still abound on happy shores, 
Where eyes with youth are aglow. 

MOTHER 

She wore no ring on her finger 
No gem ever flashed in her ear 
A rose sometimes for a breast pin 
A flower sometimes in her hair; 
But resorted never to fashion 
To make herself more fair. 

Her heart, the home of affection 

Where children and friends abide 

A Holy of Holies for all she loved, 

Where welcome was never denied. 

O, beautiful face of mother! 

Was ever a brow more fair? 

In her cultured mind at eighty 

Sweet flowers of thought bloomed there. 

'Neath the silent stars, I remember 
The tender light of her eyes. 
And her lessons of warning and counsel, 
Like halos of wisdom arise. 
171 



In spite of the trouble, care and sin, 
And flying years, I am with her again, 
Under boyhood's wonderful skies. 
She was sister to daughter, 
To son she was brother, 
Bearing burdens of others, as if no bother, 
So deitylike the love of a mother. 
Its fragrance never dies. 



THE HOME RUN 

[Who runs unsent, breaks down sooner or later 
And returns to what he professes to have left] 

The light is sweet at dawning time. 
And life is sweet in youthful prime ; 
Love, flowers, bird songs cheer the day, 
Listless we dream and lose our way; 
Alas, we wake to find, too soon. 
Life's dial marks the hour of noon 
With nothing done. 

Then, with o'er hurried effort still. 
To make amend, each thinks he will 
Paint this, write that, another day 
Turn some great feat, another way. 
Night comes, time ends, all too soon 
Death calls — ^with errand still undone 
We homeward run. 



ABSENT MINDED 

The thoughts of the brain 
Like doves from their cote, 

Forever fly in and out; 
In neighborhood flocks 
172 



At times they come, 

Again there is none about. 

Into infinite space all fled, 

The souls great errand their quest; 

Seeking truth in limitless fields; 
Seeking God and His behest. 
Seeking peace for soul unrest. 

And so there are times in life, 
When we're not at home to self; 

Yet friends, who unnoticed go by. 
Say, ''Sleepy and churlish elf." 

They lack the insight to know 
One is absent from home to self. 



FLOWERS AT MIDNIGHT 

Of what are the flowers dreaming 

When the heavy night's half thru. 
Do they dream of the coming morning 

When the sun will kiss the dew? 
Their lips shall drip with dew drops 

When the dawning has begun 
And glory shall tremble in all the drops 

For each drop shall hold a sun. 

Do they dream of coming splendor 

When song birds wake the grove? 
Of a pure maid's charming candor 

Who artlessly tells them her love? 
Who woos them to win their legends 

Of fairy and fay and sprite 
Saying, "Are ye the thoughts of angels? 

Love's breath from the kingdom of light? 
Or only the hopes of true lovers 

Blown out of their hearts in the night.'* 
173 



Do you dream and weave in the starlight 

Fresh garments to charm the view? 
Stirred still by the words of the master 

"No king is apparelled like you!" 
Enough what he said to the lilies, 

Their glory untarnished with pride 
Makes them purest and sweetest of flowers 

We can give to corpse or bride. 

WEARY OF WINTER 

When will the song birds come again 
And the north winds cease to blow? 

I long for the green and sunny fields, 
I am tired of ice and snow. 

The streams are locked in the frozen hills, 

And my life is chilled to hear 
The raving winds in the naked woods, 

And the hunter's heartless cheer. 

True, on the ice I hear the ring 

Of the skater's flashing steel, 
But I envy not the daring leaps, 

Or wintry joys they feel. 

For chill is the heart of nature, 
And cheerless the light of day. 

The moon and stars tho' bright, shine cold 
From their distant fields of gray. 

I long for the time to come again 

When nature shall wake from her night; 

And yield to the rich, the magic spell 
Of summer's enchanting light. 

With summer's pulse come tides of life 
That gladden our world with song; 
174 



That help each soul to a higher love, 
As we wander earth's flowers among. 

Many are the joys of a summer's day, 
And I long for the time to come, 

When the air will thrill with songs of birds. 
And the orchards be white with bloom. 



MISS NATURA 

O, I met her in the Springtime 

'Neath the sunlight's magic spell 
When the brooks begin to murmur 

And the buds begin to swell ; 
And I felt my heart grow tender 

All my nature ice bound long 
Ran melting in a current 

Of happy smile and song. 

Her breath was like a zephyr 

That wakes the flowers to life; 
Her self and ways so clever 

Were as banishment to strife. 
Never far off skies were bluer 

Than the soft blue of her eyes ; 
O, I miss her in the city 

And my heart with hunger cries. 

Her hair is wavy golden 

And crowns a common face, 
Unschooled, and yet she charms me, 

With her simple country grace. 
Few, if any sweeter, fairer. 

Than this sprite I sing, I know. 
In her heart is nature's sunshine 

On her cheeks the roses blow. 

175 



REAL FEASTS 

How far between are life's real feasts 
And how few are the guests seated there; 
The mass, like Lazarus feed on crumbs 
That fall from tables rare. 

When but for a stomach a feast is spread 
The human menagerie only is fed, 
If garnished with gossip and vulgar jests 
His majesty Satan, presides main guest. 

But if love is spread, a feast for the heart 
And brains be served as a proper part 
Then the soul of man will assert its reign 
And guests will a healthier growth attain. 

THOUGHT HAS COLOR 

The eye is a tell-tale creature. 

That ever betrays the heart 
With sudden, knowing expression, 

Or surprised defiant start. 
It is dull with dull ideas. 

With beautiful thoughts it is bright. 

So I take it thought has color 
And gives to the eye it's light. 

In lover, prophet and hero 

The eye sheds a beautiful light — 

Glorifies aim and purpose. 
As stars the sky at night. 

THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION, 1893 

Great thinkers have thought 

Great toilers have wrought 
And the wealth of the world 

To Chicago is brought. 
176 



Bid the people all shout 
Bells and cannon peal out 

Let the press of the world 
Tell the wonders about. 

Let the nations all come 

Give them welcome and room 
Peace tents on the earth 

Good will is in bloom. 
One sky covers all 

This planet so small; 
Each nation claims part 

Yet the earth is one ball. 

Man's origin is one, 

The same blood doth run 
In the veins of all people 

That dwell 'neath the sun. 
Welcome North, South, West, East 

To this conquest of peace 
All the centuries robbed 

To prepare man a feast. 

Earth hath done her best 

Robbed heart and reaped breast; 
All the wonders of nature 

Obey man's behest. 
Man has triumphed o'er war — 

Faith's glorious car 
In the orbit of love 

Rolls on like a star. 

Envy's dying — hate is dead, 
Hope lives — mind is ahead. 

And the genius of progress 
At last is exalted. 

Let art glorify canvas 

177 



Science clarify darkness 

And genius her inventions 

Create in completeness. 

Learn creations vast plan 

All things made for man; 
To honor God's purpose 

Let us do what we can. 
Show the best things of earth 

That have served man from birth 
To grow a great heart 

And a soul full of worth. 

Here each nation's best thought 

Stamped on what she has wrought 
Shows the ideal life 

After which she has sought. 
From the centuries past 

Set best manhood apart 
Worth is greatness of soul 

And sweetness of heart. 

Let achievements combined 

Viewed by all human kind 
Price the best growth of man 

Above all that we find. 
True or not, we are told 

By a story of old 
Of an Island of Peace 

In some sea of the east 
Where love made her home 

Where strife had no place 
Earth should be such an isle 

In the ocean of space. 



178 



THE UPAS OF SORROW 

Don't make your heart a dumping ground, 

For the sorrows of the race, 
It will turn your head to water. 

And tears will stain your face. 

Don't wreck your life, I beg you, 
With the troubles of your friends. 

It is never wise to borrow 

What the whole world gladly lends. 



FRIENDS OF OUR YOUTH 

When the heart is hungry and lonely 
How we long for some one to love ; 

For some one to love us, tho only 
An hour we the joy might prove. 

When shadows of evening are 'round us 
And daylight has faded away; 

Sweet Vesper, bright stars above us 
Remind us of trysts in life's May. 

The friends of youth quickly perish; 

How we miss them, fall into decay — 
It is wiser new friends to cherish; 

Years, cares, should not drive them away. 

Hearts sharing friendship keep sweeter. 
Face, eye, hold the light better too; 

Friends sweeten old age and bad weather, 
Love to life is both sunshine and dew. 



179 



THE OLD MASTERS 

Had Homer a teacher? 

Who graded the rule 
That measured the lines 

For the earliest school? 

Of the choruses grand 

Which Sophocles planned, 
Who taught him both 

Sweetness and power to command? 

Did Job write that book 

And give it his name? 
The epic's immortal 

Despite whence it came. 

Full fledged at the birth 

They as poets steps forth 
Communed with all spirits 

God's Prophets on Earth. 



THE MIGHT OF RIGHT 

Christian, Heathen, Pagan, Jew, 
What are Adam's sons to you? 
Note their number as they pass 
Man and woman, boy and lass, 
White and yellow, black and tan, 
Grouped in nations, sub'ed in clan; 
Envious, spoiling for a fight 
Each maintaining he is right. 

Braggarts all in praise of peace, 
Waging wars that never cease. 
Honey tongued, condemning strife, 
Cruel, heartless, wasting life. 
i8o 



Christian Standard, "Priceless Souls." 
Idol, heathen worth controls. 
Pagan, mongrel, mighty crew, 
Breeding sect imperious Jew. 

Sift this medley if you can, 
Tell me, what is man to man? 
Some ideal of the brain 
Is the goal each would attain. 
Oft we honor man with praise 
For achievement, length of days. 
Goodness, wisdom, heart or brain, 
Undersized, or noble strain. 

Food for armies are the millions, 

Slaves of toil, the common mass, 

Office preys upon civilians 

Trusts and creed; feed class on class; 

Twofold learning helps and harms us, 

Books and press are in the van 

Food and drugs and thought alarm us, 

Tell the true from false — who can? 

Giant is the effort, progress 
For material wealth and gain; 
Fraud in trade and speech oi Congress 
Mark the speculator's vein. 
Hopes are crushed and spirits broken 
By the Juggernaut of wrong. 
Helpless hosts in ranks unbroken, 
Piteous wail and feeble song. 

History is barren, few exceptions 
Are the names on honor's rolls, 
The great loss and waste of nations, 
Dwarfs beside the waste of souls. 
Yet, the call to duty nerves us 

i8i 



Earnest doing what we can. 

Love of right shall solve life's problem, 

And control the worth of man. 

A MISSIONARY 

May the blue sky now bending above you 

With auroras forever be bright; 
May the angels sent earthward to guard you 

Make your trials and sorrows all light. 
Be your life path a highway of flowers 

Winding through the grand temple of spring 
Be your memory a rich regent ever, 

Bannered hosts of bright thoughts to bring. 

May none of your joys prove fleeting 

Like flowers by roving winds torn; 
May no night-cloud of sorrow foregather 

But your life be one twilight of morn. 
To struggle for life each is fated 

Here our lives to oblivion tend 
Live then to do good as you journey 

And life will crown death in the end. 

In the flowery land of the Indies 

By Ganges, by Indus or Bay 
May souls leave their idols and follow 

The Christ, you pointing the way. 
And at last in a far away future 

In a land that is fairer than day 
To harps sing the songs you taught them 

Praise God, swell the grand roundelay. 

AS YOU WILL 

A harp there is in every bosom 

Wrought with finest skill. 
Tuned to love or fiercest passion 
182 



At the player's will. 

Wide as life and high as heaven 
Its first strains were heard 

God and Angels bow to listen 
When its chords are stirred. 

It was keyed to purest measures 

By the Master's skill 
But the serpent spoiled the tuning, 

And the player's will. 

Since if heaven bends to listen, 

To the player's skill. 
Or evil only stirs with gladness 

The player now must will. 

Tune again this harp heroic, 

To the songs above; 
Let each player ill foregoing, 

Will its power to love. 

SPRING VIOLETS 

Over the hill and its shelving side 
Are scattered the violets far and wide; 

They are purple, blue 

And of every hue, 
Maiden a wreath I will twine for you. 

A wreath I will twine to deck thy hair — 
No king has jewels half so rare 

As violets blue 

Fresh bathed in dew; 
Maiden a wreath I will twine for you. 

Like hope they come at the sun's first beam 
Braving wind and tempest's gleam; 

183 



And many a sigh 
When the storms go by 
Is sent to the bank where violets lie. 

Full many a daisy over the lea 
Turns its bright face O, Sun to thee, 

But the daisy tints 

Of a milky hue 
Will not compare with the violet's blue. 

For the chemist sun in his own way 
With a Master's skill in beauty so gay 

Has painted them blue 

And of every hue 
A lesson of meekness for me and you. 

Ere verdure has started or spring begun 
Thou bloomest in beauty, child of the sui 

Thou art up from the sod 

When spring starts abroad 
And meekly blushing trusting in God. 

I will trace by the breezes roving by 
The scented banks where violets lie 

And will cull the blue 

And white ones too 
As a crown of love sweet maid for you. 

I will twine a wreath of violets fair 
They are mete alone to deck thy hair 

And if beauty to beauty 

Can add a glow 
'Tis the fittest crown love can bestow. 



184 



HEART POWER 

The purple glow fades from the eternal vault 
The crimson morning in the west goes out 
The flight of time, the bowl of friendship breaks 
The silver cord is ever being loosed — 
Even so. 

Will memory's harp e'er cease to play 
To echoes from the past? 
Tho in grand ruin by a myriad strains, 
Or would we from the canvas of the eternal void 
Blot out the shadows limned forever there. 
Ah, no, no! 

Does not warm sunshine paint Its bow on clouds 
In desert waste is not the flower still sweet? 
May not the dying Christian smile at death 
And bathed In tears the cheek with beauty glow? 
O, yes, yes! 

But only feeling gushing from the heart 
Can melt the icebergs of this frozen world 
And play In grandeur on Its snow crowned Alps, 
Enchain Its millions with a magic spell, 
Who gaze In rapture and in wonder die. 
Aye, Aye. 

THE SUN'S WAY 

As watching one sweet summer's eve 

The sun going down in the west 

Revealing his curtains fold upon fold 

More kingly than wrapped any monarch of old 

When at night of his realm taking leave 

'Midst his splendors retiring to rest. 

How fitting the close seemed to be 
i8s 



In view of the good done on earth 
His each flower that blooms in its place 
His each pulse beat and color in space 
He the author of motion and grace 
God gives him the couch that we see 
Gives each throne according to worth. 

I turned with regret from the scene 
While its lessons fell deep in my heart 
I questioned, are man's days in vain? 
What smile has he got for his gain, 
What price for the better self slain? 
Is his end but a tent 'neath the green, 
Can'st answer me science and art? 

All nature in silence stood round 

While the schools offered logic in vain, 

Till en rapport I seemed with all good 

And my heart whispered "Take the sun's road! 

Cheer man, help him carry his load; 

Lift his eyes above toiling and pain 

To the heights where wisdom is found." 



A CHILD OF POVERTY 

Shrieking mournfully 

Thru the wold 
The midnight wind 

Is blowing cold. 
Crouched by the embers 

In pitying plight 
A child of want 

Is dying to-night. 

Grim grow the shadows 
The faint light expires 
Death's tick in the wall 
i86 



Her spirit retires. 
A young life is ended, 

Closed like the day, 
The angel that brought it 

Bears it away. 

Strange were the fires 

That gleamed in the eye 
Of poverty's child 

Not fearing to die. 
Life went out in silence 

The heart grew cold 
Poor, friendless, deserted. 

The story is told. 

Dreary and somber 

Life's last shadows fall 
Lone death, dark lethe 

Reigns over all. 
Misery unnoted 

Her grief none to tell 
But the smile on her lips 

Said "I'm well, I am well." 



A NORTHERN MADRIGAL 

The storms linger yet in the north 
From ice lake and river is free 

Then come to this beautiful beach 
And enjoy the autumn with me. 

By the banks of this river we'll stray 
The Detroit that flows toward the sun 

For mellow October is dreamy, is grand 
And the short fervid summer is done. 

Fresh winds from the forests are blowing 

187 



Filling sails that whiten the bay 
And anthems of love float around me 
Distant wave songs of Erie at play. 

Here hamlets and farms stretch around me 
Breathing songs of the life every day 

And the fragrance of doing one's duty 
Is born in on the heart at decay. 

We have wasted spring time and summer 
Midst the vapor of fancies and dreams; 

Here the real now proffers its glory, 
Life is in the main what it seems. 

Wrap the past in the shroud of its fancies, 
Seize the moment, the present today. 

Fling all else to the river's free current 
Let us live for this life while we may. 

Let us live for a purpose, and serve it 
A purpose that frowns at decay; 

Midst the rugged and strong life is earnest. 
And duty reigns king of each day. 



THE AUTUMN CARNIVAL 

God laid His hand upon the sun 
Southward its light and warmth were drawn. 
The maples flamed on every side 
Oaks, royal colors wore with pride. 
While beech, birch, ash — each common tree 
And crowned bush stood reverently 
Waiting the change that autumn brings 
When birds fly south on hurrying wings. 

Chill grew the air, the flowers died, 
In pain the woods stood glorified. 
i88 



Frost smote the earth with biting breath 
Anon, the landscape swooned in death. 
O, nature rich in toil and song, 
Art's carnivals to thee belong 
This annual lesson color blest; 
When toil is done — how sweet is rest — 
To rest in hope without a fear 
Makes toil delightful every year. 

Warriors with all their marches done, 

Last battle fought — last victory won, 

Die smiling, happy — heroes, braves! 

Enough for them — their flag still waves. 

So warrior nature, each year's run 

To cheer her toilers — harvest done — 

Paints every leaf a gonfalon ; 

Nor asks for thirty, sixty fold or more — 

Knowing field and forest did their best, 

The earth is glad, and holds her color feast. 



MY LIBRARY 

Here is the wealth of all the ages, 

Owned by me; 
Mines of heart and realms of spirit 
Stretches vast of worth and merit 
Wit and wisdom's golden ledges 

Mine in fee. 

Here with master minds I wander 

Company we, 
Paths of thought are blazed before me 
Mind's domain is free; 
Honored dead ye live, I ponder 

Thoughtfully. 

Here the ages backward rolling 
189 



Show to mc 
All earth's children how they perished 
Art and science how they flourished 
All times doing and undoing 

Wondrously. 

Though the thinker die and perish 

Thought will live 
Traced on bark, cut in marble matters naught 
Truth immortal through the ages crumbles not; 
Remote exhumed from deepest rubbish 

Life 'twill give. 

O, ye bound and lettered sages 

Facing me 
Mummied silent in your places 
Witnesses from all the races 
Of the minds immortal graces 

Blest are ye. 

THE ST. LAWRENCE 

O, I see It yet in the fadeless past 

The river that flows to the sea 

As it bathes the feet of the rolling hills 

Gathering strength from lakes, rivers and rills 

What thoughts of vastness my being fills, 

As I think of the aeons of ages fled, 

Of the labor of carving a river's bed, 

Of thy tribute born to the sea. 

A sky of summer hangs over the scene. 
And my youth comes back to me. 
As I pass on thy banks old cities, and towns, 
Forts, where the god of battle still frowns; 
And note the civilization that crowns 
The near and far, the now and then, 
I bless again, the frontier men 
190 



Whose blood, has made all free. 

Almighty the hand that broadcast sowed 
Those emerald isles in thee; 
And wrapped with air that thrills like wine 
The hills, and valleys, each sylvan shrine 
That mirrors the beauty, those waves of thine 
Give back, as again our crowded boat. 
With reeling excitement thy rapids shoot 
And hurry us on toward the sea. 

The night of the east, and moon of the west, 
Like the shores of the ages meet here ; 
Betwixt them thou flowest, O river of might 
Skirting Europe and France with liquid delight, 
Yet giving thy strength to the west In thy flight; 
Mighty home where the ships of the world may rest, 
Earth's commerce ride on thy tide-troubled breast 
The tramp of the nations sounds near. 

A spell of enchantment hangs over the scene 

As the present illumines the past; 

Strange braves and legends pass before me 

Bold heroes with Wolf at their head now I see 

And tides of the past like tides of the sea 

Are backing my thoughts, like that current of thine 

And again I stand, in the focus of time 

O beautiful river, 'till into my soul 

Those glories of thine have passed. 

MY WILL 

A smile for my friends, 
A kiss for my love, 
A prayer to the Lord 
Then a swift flight above 
Is the will of my soul, 
When earth life shall end. 
191 



Faith, Hope, know the path; 
I shall live over there 
In the city of life 
Jesus went to prepare; 
There happy to live, 
With friends gone before. 

My words and my deeds! 
How perplexing the thought! 
Have I done what I should? 
Have I said what I ought? 
I must leave them behind 
To the judgment of earth; 
May that judgment be kind, 
Nay according to worth! 
I must leave all behind. 

INTERVIEWED AT EIGHTY 

The old man's steps were short and slow 

In the crowded thoroughfare — 
I eagerly watched his face bent low 

A record of thought and care. 
I drew him aside from the hurrying street 

To a seat in the park where lovers meet 
There, I tapped his current of life and grief, 

And this is the story, he told in brief. 

"In youth when Eros had kissed my heart 

And life with promise was filled 
I said I will set my best apart 

To my race my powers I willed 
I sought on the cheek of my fellow man 

To lighten the touch of care; 
With the troubles of life I early began 

As a private, to wage warfare ; 
I gave my money to help the poor, 

I coined my heart into song; ' 

192 



When empty neglect prevailed. 
I wove the best of my brain in prose 
To help earth's weary along. 

"I was favored and petted as long as I gave, 

Ere means and powers all failed; 
The world soon reaped my fenceless fields 
For fifty years I tugged at the chains 

That hold mankind in thrall; 
An occasional smile I got for my pains — 

Have I failed? No, not in all; 
There is comfort my friend at eventide 

For those who have done their best; 
And the blessings of God are on the man 

Who waits on His behest. 

"True, I am grieving for hands I clasped, 

For the red lips, mine have kissed; 
Each step of life, each moment elapsed, 

Is stamped with something missed. 
In Yamoyden's Hall are all my friends — 

This world is a storm swept place. 
I am nearing the end, hope bright cheer lends 

And points to the islands of peace. 

"The years have reaped the fields of my heart; 

The stubbles are white with snow; 
Yet the sun to my soul, doth heat impart 

This winter of life must go ! 
Now, I have no poems to cheer the throng, 

And my hands are empty of wealth. 
The senses fail, when the journey's long; 

I am tottering on toward health; 
Here little's accomplished of aught we plan 

But the end is well, if we work for man." 



193 



A SPOILED LIFE 

I see in your face no beauty 

The light of your eye is dull 
Your step has lost its vigor 

Your heart with sorrow is full. 

Yes, yes the old, old story 

Of love, temptation, sin; 
The path of ruin you entered. 

And since have walked therein. 

Pride promised to make you happy 
You reasoned, **I must be free! 

It is narrow to only do the right, 
I am broad, no limits for me!" 

From the narrow path you were jostled 

Or willingly stepped aside 
You simply followed your own sweet will 

Chose desire and nature for guide. 

And now with your beauty faded 
And your heart with ashes filled 

A waste world lies before you 
To never more be tilled. 

Wrong ever grows its harvests 
Of thistles, weeds and thorn, 

The pleasure sought with downward look 
Of an earth accursed is born. 

Life's choicest things grow slowly 
By resisting storm and blight; 

Only rods of faith grow quickly 
Bud, bloom, and fruit in a night. 



194 



The pleasures of earth fade swiftly 
And in sorrow yield no delight 

But the lamp of love in the human heart 
Shines through the face in the night. 

In the dawn of life your beauty 

Was passing fair no doubt 
But the face of age is gruesome 

When the light in the heart goes out. 



MOODS OF THE HEART 

(The heart is greatly disquieted until it finds God 

Marcus Aurelius) 

The moods of the heart are many 
As the stars that swing in space 

They come and go like shadows 
Of thought, on an infant's face. 

Like the earth aglow with sunlight 

Is the heart aglow with love 
But shadows of hate obscure it 

As clouds, the moon above. 

When the spirit of grace is in it 

In Heaven we seem to dwell 
But when evil passions rule it 

We are scarce outside of hell. 

It is kin to all of nature; 

Has countless hates and loves 
Has passions like hawks and vultures 

Emotions like larks and doves. 

In its blood red fount are mirrored 
Volitions of soul and brain, 
195 



It is Eden before temptation 

And then it's the house of Cain. 

'Tis the native lair of the coward 
Where cruelties lurk and hide; 

Anon, it's the altar of worship 
Where hope and faith abide. 

As a ball in the hands of players 

Is man to time and place; 
The moods of the heart are pictures 

Of change, in the fields of space. 

And yet true to its lode star, 
As the needle to the pole; 

Thru variance, dip, disturbance. 
Love ever regains control. 

O garden God-leased, who keeps thee 

For true love set apart. 
Will never grow weeds of passion 

Nor die with an ache in the heart. 



WHAT IS CHARACTER? 

Not a something cut in marble 

Not a thing of brass or clay 
But a live result of action 

That groweth day by day. 
Like raiment fine in fashion 

Or untidy clothes one wears 
Is the essence of one's action 

The character one bears. 
Man's reputation only 

Is the thing men praise or hiss 
But his character is truly 

And really what he is. 
196 



SONGS IN THE NIGHT 

In the sensuous air of the south 
The nightingale sings in the night 

And its song is impassioned or low 
According as stars give their light. 

Ere rain beat or tempest is heard, 

Thy notes seem troubled and sad 
Then cease till the storm is past 

When moon and stars make them glad. 

Is it true then, that story of old, 

That a slain lover lives in your breast, 

That you sing to a grief laden throng 
Whose sorrov^^ will not let them rest? 

Do the great undertones of the world 

Break like waves on your heart in the night, 

Art silent because of the wrong 
Too plainly revealed by daylight? 

Does the Lord's Angel come as of old 
To his saints in the night from on high ? 

Does your heart overflow with his song? 
Does the light of his love glad your eye? 

Even so in the hush of the night 

His peace floweth into the soul 
Even so sang His saints in the night 

Spurning stripes and prison control. 

O songs of life, ye are sweet, 

Doubly sweet in the silence of night; 

When the toils of the day are complete 
Then songs of the soul take flight. 



197 



HOMES AND PRISONS 

The prisons of earth are many, 
The homes of the world are few, 

What to me is a peaceful eden 
Is a desert waste to you. 

I have a bent for labor 

You have a genius for rest, 
Things that are deepest stamped on me, 

On you were lightly pressed. 

One loves a vine thatched cottage. 
Another a palace would have 

The one exalts the master. 
The other comforts the slave. 

Some move ever so quickly 

While others are never in haste 

And so through the roll of virtues 
Persons differ in will and taste. 

If the artist, the sculptor or poet 
With heart refined and chaste, 

Consorts with the maid of all work, 
There sentiment runs to waste. 

Tho the lifting power of marriage 

Is great beyond control 
It only acts when man and wife 

Live level, soul with soul. 



ST. CLAIR FLATS 

I ask myself, is it real? 

As I scan the Flats so wide 
And my thoughts drift hither, thither 
198 



Like the vessels on the tide; 
For the summer's hazy stillness 

Mellows everything I see 
And dreamy distant pictures 

Form and vanish endlessly 
And the oozy wash of waters 

As they waste the sandy shore 
Are a protest 'gainst the island 

And its builders evermore. 

Around float gauzy insects 

Above fly duck and crane — 
Where flag, wild rice and willows 

Mark the shallow lines with green. 
While below the crystal surface 

On sand or mossy floor; 
Dwells a brotherhood of fishes 

Our Waltons all adore. 
I seldom care to wet a line 

My hunting skill is poor, 
But here's the place to bathe and dine 

And dip the dripping oar. 

Real pleasure here may widely range 

With little work for feet — 
For steam and sail and oar and tide 

With every mood compete. 
Beneath the landing roof I sit 

And smoke and look and dream; 
Question the wherefore and the why 

Of every changing scene. 
Here too in every stage of growth 

I read the books of life 
Of young, of old, of middle aged 

Child, lover, husband, wife. 

At work are some on title page, 

While others near the close; 
Some write of hope, ambition, love, 
199 



Some sighing, write but woes. 
So, day by day, the pages fill. 

Light up or shade the face — 
Upon the soul, the evil thought 

As well as good, leaves trace; 
And as about the world we go 

However act our part — 
The face, the eye, the outward self, 

Reveals the inward heart. 

We are unconscious artists all, 

In business, on parade. 
We feed on law^ by love and hate, 

By thought and act are made. 
All labeled, stamped, and marked 

Are we by birth, profession, trade. 
So, as the loungers come and go, 

And as each plays his part; 
I note the level of men's lives 

Are not so far apart. 

For bounded by the realm of want 

Is flesh and spirit too 
We take the present doubtingly 

The dim unknown pursue. 
Daily we question those we meet, 

Ask what they know, what's new? 
Thus ever gain thru other eyes, 

Of life a wider view, 
Thankful am I for idle days, 

And places of resort; 
For real life displays itself. 

Most candidly in sport. 

AN HELP MEET 

There's a smile in every word 
That her rosy lips caress — 

The perfect style of June 
In her manner and her dress. 
200 



And when to me she writes, 

Because we are apart 
Every sentence Is a path 

To her busy brain and heart. 

There is purpose in her life 
Fruiting rich as autumn days 

She a woman, she a wife, 
She a queen in all her ways! 

Not a butterfly of fashion — 
Just a woman, flesh and blood, 

Content to be while living, 
True, beautiful, and good. 

KEEPING WATCH 

Watchers thru the night so lonely, 

Is it chill and dark? 
Does the starlight shimmer coldly 

Does the earth look stark? 
Watcher why not sleep in comfort, 

Why your vigils here? 
Does the sob for dead, for dying 

Pierce and rend your ear? 

Lying on the young earth lonely 

In the silent night 
Jacob saw the heavens open 

Bathed his soul in light. 
And his eyes were lifted upward, 

Looked toward the day — 
Thence he journeyed, sweetly trusting, 

When the dawn grew gray. 

When the lights of earth burn dimmest 

To the eyes of flesh 
Then the lights beyond glow brightest 

20I 



To the eyes of faith. 
Maiden, why so flushed and restless, 

Is the waiting long? 
It is hard to read life's signals 

Surges so the throng. 

Young man, why so impatient, 

Why not bide your time? 
In the chase your strength is wasted; 

Tarry in your prime. 
Tired pilgrim stepping feebly, 

On, the way is short 
Bravely seaman face the tempest, 

Make the homing port. 

Why in yonder hovel watcher 

Burns the lamp so late? 
Death is calling one too tired 

For the dawn to wait. 
Aged watcher life's behind thee 

Soon must close the fight; 
Look! behold the golden pathway 

For the soul's near flight. 

Stay thy haste, tho' time is speeding ; 

Waste no present boon; 
Give your heart to love, and joy, 

Aches may fill it soon. 
Rest, the night will soon be over 

Dawn is drawing near, 
To live in the eternal yonder 

Go the dead from here. 



202 



ENFORCED IDLENESS 

(The curse of the poor Is his poverty) 

I have read It over and over again — 

"The Cotter's Saturday Night." 

And think the charm of that noble life 

Was the something always In sight. 

It was little I know save hardest toll 

But that and the something more 

That dally graced his simple board 

And kept the wolf from the door. 

Save grace and toll supplies were scant 

Yet each day brought enough for daily want. 

I too have bairns and a loving wife 

But our lot Is worse than the Cotter's life 

For we no acres or cottage own 

And the landlord's rule is — "rent cash down." 

Rent may be low, but poor and small 

Is the house for which we can pay at all. 

Tho bairns and wife and I are willing, 

There are times when we can't earn a shilling. 

When times are bad or profits small 

Short time, low wages or nothing at all. 

When work is scarce days go by 
With naught in sight for life's supply. 
We pray and trust but doubt comes too 
I guess, because we have nothing to do. 
Yet day by day with patient tread 
We seek a chance to earn our bread. 
At every door where we apply 
No work today, is the curt reply. 
The shop is closed, The mill's shut down 
Work yields no profit, dead is the town. 



203 



Employers will not pay for skill 
That yields no shekels for the till. 
So brains and hands oft idly wait 
Till ''Corners" swell the market rate. 
Till then bairns, wife and I must eat. 
Yet wherewith all must we be fed, 
And wherewith all shall be clad 
Till profits crest the market wave? 
For muscle's all the stock we have. 

We all work hard when times are good 
For daily toil brings daily food. 
Beside we are glad arrears to meet 
Tho nothing lessens cost of meat. 
When times are very flush at best 
We are oft laid off, but not for rest. 
Laid off, because the boss that day 
Concludes to labor will not pay. 
Or for repairs there's urgent need, 
To run at cost is not his creed. 
Even steady jobs are not inclined 
To help the poor man raise the wind. 

All strikes and lockouts are a curse 

To men of muscle with no purse. 

St. Crispin Clan and Labor guild 

On poor men's backs their burdens build. 

They strike at Capital not at us. 

But work and pay stop thru the muss. 

So want and woe anew set in 

When work to right our wrongs begin; 

With other ills to fight beside 

The poor is doomed to the under side. 

It is all a boast from first to last 
Earth hath no place uncursed by caste. 
The toiler ranks not with the best 
When dailies blow for the best drest. 
204 



For what can penury pay or spend 
For dress or schooling or such like end? 
But in this age of science and art 
All are not dummies who don't take part. 
Life's bitterest law he names, who says; 
*'The poor have always such poor ways." 

True of civilization, the darlings 

Are the beautiful great and strong. 

True the rich the many friended 

To "Our Set" do not belong. 

But the valleys are full of souls of will 

Who toil like the giant chained in the mill. 

Drudge on they must till might in short 

Shall hurl the burdens off labor in sport. 

The burdens that grow with the price of land 

And society's price for a place to stand. 

Until profits be shared by labor and wealth 
There'll be waste of muscle, waste of health; 
There'll be aches in stomach as well as heart 
And limbs with exposure will ache and hurt. 
Until gold and silver and acres of clod 
In the balance weigh less than a child of God. 
Man must suffer and wait, must toil and endure 
Until Nazareth's Carpenter comes again. 
Comes to the earth to rule and reign 
When justice, good will, shall be restored, 
And Mammon no more enthroned earth's Lord. 

RESURRECTION 

I saw the curtains of the night divide 
And on a chill bleak world the morning smiled. 
Stern winter had so long 'gainst life decried, 
That nature no more flag of truce unfurled — 
Slain was her hardiest child. 
Entranced I looked, the distant woods 
205 



Began to breathe and wrap themselves 
In mists of greenish haze. 
Grim winter hid away his bitter moods 
And soft green lances as if borne by elves 
Marched down earth's sunny ways. 

Life heard the call of far off star and sun 
And vegetation burst her sleeping tomb 
And sent her yeanlings out to meet the spring. 
The burial days of sleep their round had run 
And resurrection's joyous time had come 
And rank on rank new life began to spring. 
Gazing, I saw the fields of billowy mounds 
'Neath which dead generations sleeping lay 
At rest from battling with storms of time. 
The night of death like nature ends its round — 
Comes spring to them some resurrection day? 
For them life's reveille shall sound its call. 

I felt this veil of flesh unwind its folds 
My vision lengthened 'bove the waste of years 
My spirit moving saw the eternal plan ; 
One purpose vast each world controlled. 
Nature, spirit, the extremes, no room for fears, 
Conviction came as when fixed facts we scan. 
Each glance the omnific eye sent forth a dawn 
To roll and break upon this netherworld, 
And mark the flight of time. 

The awakening comes, far, far I saw 

Ending the procession of the years 

The promise of an earth restored; 

Circled by harps and songs that wait a jubilee. 

Expectant spirits waiting for the trumpet sound 

Are crowding toward the crowning act 

When earth shall own her King. 

The sleep of death shall end 

The dead shall live 

And earth obey her lord. 

206 



It is promised by the Word that never fails; 
Desired by the day spring from on high. 
Even now the morning star lights up the dawn; 
Earth's troubled night is scarcely half asleep 
Already eyes of faith are waking up 
The bride, expectant of her coming spouse, 
In pure desire is praying "haste the day." 
And hungry hearts long for departed loves 
Eyes longing look to see an absent face. 
Hard empty palms are hot to clasp a friend. 

God's stream of purpose 

Swelled by faith and love 

Is quickened in its flow 

And waters all the fields of faith and hope 

Prayer and good will to man. 

This age 'bove others is most rich in faith 

Feeds on fruition of diviner hope 

Pants with desire that nears enjoyment 

And grows its wisdom from the word of God. 

The right grows more aggressive; 

Idolatry, ignorance and doubt are on the run. 

Science once pagan is converted now! 

Says, "Mind and spirit never taste of death." 

Says, "Nature is but waste of thought 

Swept into space to aggregate in change" 

Says, "Matter has no life is but a sea of death 

Stirred by great waves of thought 

That hurl it into ever varying forms of change; 

With ever changing laws that come and go." 

Twixt good and evil still the fight is on 

The good grows stronger, sin but more desperate. 

The field is freer now, of din and smoke, 

And brighter are the faces of the brave. 

The brave who worship God by helping man. 

The hosts that love the right, have cheerful grown, 
And march to quicker time. 
207 



Slow, solemn strains, have given place 

To stirring, sweet, triumphant songs 

Among the sons of faith. 

The hearts that hold no pity for the poor 

Are caged alone in savage breasts 

Where sacrifice is taming them by power of love. 

Few are earth's slaves save those of drink 

And lust, and they in covert worship self, 

Fearing the strength of those who seek their good. 

The good renew their strength by deeds of love. 
O, heralds of the day, come quick, ride fast! 
And drive all loitering shadows from the earth. 
Enthrone the conquest of eternal right 
And usher in the dawn of time's supernal light — 
The golden age of justice and of peace 
The crowning age of sympathy and love 
The universal brotherhood of man 
The reign of spirits reconciled to God. 

SOME SHADOWS 

Some shadows must fall on every home; 
Into each heart some sorrow must come. 
Until good hurls evil ofi the earth 
Sobs and weeping will mingle with mirth. 

For the young may fail 

The old must die 

And change wring tears 

From every eye. 

While earth thru light and dark swings round 
Will the heart with aches and joys abound. 
The weak must cringe while the strong hold rule ; 
The strife is ceaseless 'twixt sharper and fool. 

For mirth won't last 

Even smiles fade out; 

No telling the fate 

Of king or lout. 

208 



THE WORLD SUITS ME 

When life was young 
And my pulse beat strong 
And paths of pleasure 
Seemed endlessly long 
I said this world suits me. 

I said its dawns are founts to my soul 
Its purple sunsets glory's own goal 
This grand old world suits me. 

So I gave loose rein 

To fancies and dreams, 

Noted earth's Edens 

And cool winding streams — 

Took in the length of 

The star's soft gleams 

And said this world suits me. 

I looked on the fields of human life; 
I looked on the centers of human strife, 
And saw great victors with honors rife; 
Fame noisily gushing from drum and fife 
And said this world suits me. 

But age I protest improves the sight 
And shows the truth in a truer light 
For much I thought, I saw clearly in youth 
Is full of flaws and wanting in truth ; 
To eyes that never were washed in tears 
Much that is faulty as perfect appears. 

My day of endeavor is nearing its night 
I welcome its coming, the end of the fight; 
For much that I purposed to do with my might 
Has failed, wrong mixed with the right; 
Many best efforts have suffered from blight. 
209 



THE LOST ART 

Many men know Hebrew, Greek, 

Who knows what tongue the songbirds speak? 

Who knows the lore of herd or flock? 

Who can the Insect mind unlock? 

Adam called to each its name 

As by him all earth's creatures came. 

Sore wearied by that living host 

Confused, he nature's language lost. 

Since then tho man has done his best 

To learn brute tongue; we must confess 

Our meager knowledge is a guess 

'Bout chirp of bird and bray of ass. 

Since then, this world so full of life 

Has but two voices, song and strife. 

Which science swears beyond a doubt 

Means stomach full, or food all out. 

Still there are souls the songbird charms 
Whose natures shrink from daintiest worms. 
Even the mosquito pipes his strain 
For more than feel its lancet's pain. 
The smallest life on earthy ball 
Notes nature's changes one and all. 
The wild fowl with its little brain 
Knows more of sky and sea and plain 
Than man, with all his boasted pride; 
Tho claimed by some to beasts allied. 
The bee, the beaver, wiser are 
'Bout storm and shine and nature far 
Than weather prophets, by the score, 
With all their daily printed lore. 

To Adam was dominion given 
To lord it over all the living 
But when he lost his self control 
Man lost his grip on nature's soul; 
210 



And once proud rulers of this sphere 
Sank to the depths of doubt and fear. 
To save man's hope from its white shroud 
God set his bow upon the cloud 
And promise gave when men were pale 
"Seed-time and harvest shall not fail." 
What nature writes is not now clear 
Although she prints a book each year. 
With her man's deep in love indeed, 
Yet few the pages he can read. 
It may be nature, heartless, smart 
Has kind o' jilted her sweetheart. 

THE HISTORY OF CRIME 

Sin against each other, 

And then drift apart, 

Is a plain law of crime 

Written deep on the heart. 

In anger Cain shed Abel's blood. 

Then accursed, fled thence 

To the East, Land of Nod; 

Where as fugitive he nursed 

His low sullen thoughts 

And for harvests of evil 

Devised cruel plots. 

Strong cities he built him 
And ruled over men 
God's free earth divided 
He sold out for gain. 
With countenance fallen 
He looked but for spoil, 
And no worth saw in man. 
Save the worth of his toil. 
This father of robbers 
Had murdered his man 
Which made him the chieftain 
Of earth's evil clan. 
211 



Who rebels against God, 
He rebels against man. 

As in the beginning 
So down thru all time, 
The faithless, the doubting 
Have fattened on crime. 
Even as Cain devised cities 
And measures and weights, 
Have his sons devised pleasures, 
And used them for baits. 
To catch the unwary, 
To injure the good; 
Spread nets and dug pits 
On the land, on the flood. 

But curst of his mother. 
And curst of his God — 
'Bove the cattle and earth, 
Was this robber of Nod, 
Who traveled the wrong. 
When he knew the right road; 
Offered first, fruits and flowers 
Then, Abel's warm blood. 
He had battened on evil 
Had fed upon doubt 
Had tortured his reason 
Till faith had gone out. 
And at last as it must be 
When a stranger to right 
His Brother's acceptance 
Enraged him to fight. 

From its Source ever widening 
Thru the ages of time. 
Rolls down to the present, 
That current of crime; 
Diverse are its feeders 
As whims of the mind. 
212 



With main current deep 
As all evil combined. 
Each doubt in the Father 
Bred doubt in the Son; 
So broadened crimes current 
The farther it run. 

Cain's lusts in his children 
Are as plain when they're bom 
As the white tents of Jabal ; 
As Jubal's wildlhorn. 
Even current today 
Do bold bad men pass 
As in lands east of Eden 
Did Anak's own brass. 
A spawn breeding lot 
Were these minions of evil 
True chips of the old block 
Of Cain the uncivil. 

It was one against one 

When the trouble began 

It has raged till the battle 

Is man against man. 

Pi'coV'-rlience came first, 

Then murder, then lust, 

Crime's procession still lengthens, 

Still trails thru the dust. 

Doubt harbored by one 

Has tainted all flesh 

Till this life's a disease. 

I repeat it I know it! 

(You may laugh If you please) 

Tho I state not the cause; 

This life's a disease. 

Centrifugal evil 

Expulsively tends 

213 



To quicken migration 
To earth's farthest ends. 
Like the down on the thistle 
Fear wings us for flight! 
Conscience only gives strength, 
When we follow the right. 



TEMPTATIONS 

Our passions are oft athirst 

And reckless as hungry bears 
Temptations before us halt 

To entice with glittering wares. 
Like rivers our veins are filled 

With the pour of a sudden lust 
When appetites of the body reign 

They drag the soul in the dust. 

When reason the monarch of life 

By her subjects is once deposed 
And the fleshly appetites rebel 

The soul some charm must lose, 
For forever lying in wait 

Are desires of wondrous length — 
Some ripe Delilah with silent shears 

To cut away our strength. 

It was so with the fathers of old 

It is so with the present day 
When from purpose, strength is shorn, 

The flesh will have its way. 
Then, in blindness the fallen must grind 

In the tyrant's heavy mill; 
Each Sampson fallen becomes a slave. 

The sport of his victor's will. 



214 



A RUINED FLOWER 

I picked it up on the crowded street 

Soiled and trampled and torn 
A simple blossom a child of the sun 

Its fragrance and beauty gone. 
Tenderly praised when plucked, no doubt 

Loved and fondly caressed 
In the heat of affection its fragrance failed 

Failed in the hand that pressed; 
Then pitied mayhap, then tossed on the pave 

To be trodden by careless feet. 
From the crest of affection pure, sweet, thing 

It sank to the dirt of the street. 

Now grant me O, Muse the poet's eye 

With keen perceptive thought 
In this ruined rose to read aright 

The larger lesson taught. 
There are rare sweet blossoms of human kind 

Reared and cultured with care 
Young girls grown up in the homes of men 

Pure as the flowers are. 
Sure the ruined thing I found today 

Is a type of woman when lusts betray. 
Innocent things in our homes are they 

Vestals for shrines of love 

With graces of person charms of mind 

Clinging, trusting, sweet, 
With brows and faces pure and fair 

Where honor and virtue meet. 
The moment they are soiled by the hand of lust, 

Blushes and smiles remove 
Thence down to slums and midnight streets 

They drift from home and love. 
O, daughter of man thou art made of clay 

The curse in thy body lives 
215 



It may slumber awhile 'neath blush and smile 
But wantoned with, it deceives. 

When sunned by lust its poison revives 

And the demon of evil lives 
Plucked in a moment of burning love, 

Blackened and charred by its heat 
Soon passion full gorged deserted, and then 

Cast ofif by the good and great. 
Betrayed by one, mayhap a true friend, 

Who meant not the ruin wrought. 
In both, blind passions their leashes slipped 

To wanton and revel in shame 
While honor and conscience the ruin beheld 

And writhed in the scorching flame. 

THE JUDGMENT 

Consider nature, — she seems made up of the 
savage and the tender; kind or cruel, as it chances; 
men devise wars, punishments, asylums, homes. 
The heart says to suffering, "Hope on". 

Love is the sun of the soul shining on the here- 
after. 

Every page of human history 

Handed down since time began 
Tells how good and evil battled 

In the heart of every man. 
How right and wrong have triumphed 

In the ages of the past. 
How tribes and nations disappeared, 

Before oppression's blast. 

How the infant in the cradle 

And the king upon the throne, 
Were slain by those whom nature prized 

For girth of chest and bone. 
Across this backward waste of time 
2i6 



No human eye can see 
That nature rights the injured ones, 
Who bow to might's decree. 

Some thinkers say, there is no hell! 

It is plain as plain as can be 
That every page of nature says 

From chastening hands we are free! 
Well, let us read this open book 

Let thoughts of judgment stay^ 
And if we find her good and kind 

Why then to nature pray. 

Go ask the seer, ask Milton 

And Satan you will find 
Is the Satan of the ages 

Not a phantom of the mind. 
Evil is so abundant 

In the good that here we find, 
Says John Stewart Mill, of nature; 

Her acts don't prove her kind. 

Nature nurses motes in sunbeams. 

Yet sows the world with death; 
Her heart is rent with earthquakes, 

And cyclones are her breath. 
In the billows of the ocean 

By their beams, she swings the stars. 
Yet, this dancing ground of tempests 

Is bestrewn with broken spars. 

Is nature kind? she's cruel too; 

No flesh but has its thorn ; 
The birth, the death are cruel foes 

To everything that is born. 
Is nature kind? she's cruel too. 

Half smile half cloud and storm; 

217 



Earth's garments made by hands of love 
By hands of hate are torn. 

Is nature kind, vain boaster? 

Pray show me if you can 
Where mercy, justice, germinate, 

Save in the heart of man. 
And even there a feeble growth 

The better virtues find 
If the only guide be conscience 

If the only guide be mind. 

For the inmost heart bears witness 

Of a judgment of a king 
Who rewardeth good and evil 

Whose right it is to reign. 
O, how patiently they suffer 

How patiently they wait 
Whose wrongs seem never righted here 

To pass the golden gate. 

Shall the cruel, think you, boaster, 

Whose number none can tell, 
In that longed for land of justice 

Escape the throes of hell? 
It is the teaching of the scripture. 

The longing of the heart 
For time to come, when God shall put, 

The wolves and lambs apart. 

Here, the reign of law is cruel, 

Its assizes fierce we dread; 
It regardeth not the infant 

Nor man with snowy head. 
We behold, yet pant for justice 

Tempered with love complete 
Such grace and love as only grow 

Around God's mercy seat. 
2l8 



THE STEAMER CHINA 

(Lake Erie, 1883) 

Dear Friends: 

Take note on China boat, 

Upon Lake Erie we are afloat; 

No toil today; from care we are free 

A large and joyous company. 

From Cleveland forth, we follow the 

Down streaming waters toward the sea. 

Thru purple mists along we glide 

By steam, out-stripping wind and tide. 

To right the friendly shore lies near. 

To north and west, some sails appear. 

We gaze upon that line of blue 
Where old is lost; and into view 
Forever rises something new. 
There watch each vessel rise and sink 
And as we watch, these thoughts we think 
Each vessel on some errand bent. 
Built, manned, and guided with intent; 
Looks something human, doomed to strife 
Upon the restless waves of life. 

To distant ports white sailed they go, 
Some with the wind content to sail 
While others fret against the gale. 
Each with its freight of joy or woe 
Doth onward sail, some fast, some slow. 
Why are some doomed before they start 
While others grandly enter port. 
How close allied these craft we meet 
To people on the road or street. 

Men are like sailboats, such as we 
Today see sail this inland sea. 
The young clean built and white of sail, 
The old bear marks of many a gale. 
219 



The strong securely ride the storm; 
They perish first of feeblest form. 
Some helpless sink in infancy 
While others drift on hopelessly. 
O, man o'erwhelmed in busy strife — 
Take ship and learn the drift of life. 

Yon little craft — a painted fop, 
Her hold is small, she's light of top. 
Propellers are our men of craft 
They carry burdens fore and aft, 
While lumber boats are men of trade 
For use and service trusty made ; 
The masted schooners, are allied 
To men we meet, on every side; 
In port, at home, they're wintry things; 
Away they are birds on happy wings. 

Our worldly men are vessels large 

Have every enterprise in charge; 

But when they land to make report, 

A tug must drag them into port. 

Their worldly load is everything 

That promised gold or joy to bring. 

When — Give account! calls from afar 

Think you they'll cross the harbor bar? 

If no tug tempts that dreadful gale. 

Henceforth, a shoreless sea they sail. 

Mildew and storm mar whitest sails — 

Cheeks lose their smiles when grief prevails; 

Suffice to say, in boats we trace 

A semblance of the human race. 

THE WRECKER 

(A Cornish Legend) 
The wrecker sat in his cavern door 
Silently watching the moaning sea 
Noting the dip of the screaming gulls 
220 



Said "Stormy the night will be". 

The white spray leaped from the sunken reefs 

Like spirits into the air 

The tide rolled landward, a mighty grief, 

As of giants in despair. ^ 

He saw the petrel pluming for flight 

The spectral vapor already in sight 

And restlessly said, "it will storm tonight". 

The sky drooped low o'er the moaning sea 

As if daring the deep to fight 

While the silent air (between the two) 

Seemed trying to keep them quiet. 

His restless eye read every sign 

The storm king spreads abroad 

In warning of the wrath to come 

When tempests take the road. 

It was old to the wrecker, oft before, 

He had seen this preparation for war; 

Had laughed in glee at his cavern door, 

As he thought of the drift to come ashore. 

For many a goodly ship had he 

Lured on those sunken rocks 

But never he thought of the drifting dead 

As he landed barrel and box. 

But today a strange unrest he feels 

And shadows tug at his heart. 

Strange spectres of evil the sea reveals 

And his muscles twitch and start. 

His past life seems to come again, 
With its good and evil, its shine and rain 
And his soul responds with an aching pain 
That is new to him, that he cannot name. 
Is it born within from the outward throes 
Of a troubled world, or the inward ache 
The soul must feel, when ruin hurled 
From the ethical heights of the moral world? 
However it be, nature at last had struck a key 
221 



To which must answer heart and brain, 
As mercy answers cries of pain. 
Strange influences on his senses fell 
But why, or whence he could not tell; 
Yet forced, he felt against his will, 
Himself the victim of some spell, 
He could not by his reason quell. 

Why is a dog impelled to yield 

His mournful howl at some bell's peal 

Whose trembling sound floats in the air 

While other curs quit not their lair; 

Or why when luna's round and full 

One bays at her so pitiful? 

In some such way far vague and dim 

The wrecker (something troubled him). 

Inward he felt presentments roll — 

Unknown emotions stir his soul 

As if the future then flashed back 

Results of some unacted act 

He saw his past life quickly pass 

Procession like as thru a glass; 

Then felt his trembling heart stand still 

And scalding mist his hot eyes fill. 

"Must I then own the truth" — he cried, 
"The teaching of the Crucified." 
Each life that to this earth is hurled 
Is tethered to another world. 
And every man that lives in this 
His brother's keeper therefore is. 
The future challenged him indeed 
To halt, consider every deed; 
As if the simplest act we wis. 
Beyond the now, sends influences. 
He turned away from the deepening gloom, 
But in his cavern found no room 
For his unrest, with troubled brow 
222 



And faltering step he sought the sea, 
Asking why, whence troubles be? 
Nature with fear was deeply stirred 
And all her throes seemed evil starred. 

His every sense was pained with fear; 
He felt some strangeness filled the air, 
As if voices spoke, which he could not hear. 
Intangible warnings assailed his ear. 
Before him passed vision-like faces in pain 
The will of another seemed ruling his brain; 
A warning, if balefires be lit on the height 
Trouble would come to the wrecker, that night. 
He moved with ease, his senses worked well, 
Around him weird forces were weaving a spell. 
What influences these moving still as the wind 
Enslaving with power the will and the mind. 
Was it soul-flowing-vigor brooding o'er space 
Announcing results ere the act taketh place? 
Some thought-bearing ether the mass will not heed, 
Rejecting the lesson earth's true prophets read. 
Half broken in purpose he tried to explain 
Why intangible warnings impinged on his brain. 

His conscience now tender the warning said heed! 
But reason cried, coward what is it you dread? 
As a carrier pigeon tossed up circles round 
'Till in sensuous ether a pathway is found. 
So circled his reason, so wavered his will 
Mid doubt and conviction 'till vanished the spell. 
As after the battle, the stragglers come in, 
He regains his excuses and justifies sin. 
Food, clothing, life comforts he says, I must have. 
They, my jetsam, my flotsam the gifts of the wave. 
He reasoned, as men do in calling and trade 
Is it evil if by it my living is made? 
Almost persuaded he turned from the right 
Almost persuaded he faced toward the night 
Then doubt shot arrows of fear in his brain 
223 



His struggling conscience filled with pain. 

By the lightning's glare, his face revealed 
The fact, an evil choice, his sad fate sealed. 
Black night dropped down, the darkness of death 
His white locks stirred by storm-demon breath. 
All nature trembled from far and from near 
Sea, earth felt the wound of the storm's red spear. 
To life on the earth the thunders above 
Say a storm knows no mercy, quarter or love. 
With body atremble, with feverish mind 
He goes like a wolf to prey on his kind. 
Stealthily steals to the headland height 
And swiftly a balefire glows on the night. 
There muses the wrecker feeding his fire — 
The laborer is worthy of his hire. 
How good (tho false) must seem the light 
To sailors on the sea at night. 

He knew results would different be 
From what the pilots think or see. 
But what of that, pretended friends 
Oft kindle fires for selfish ends; 
Win confidence for sake of prey 
They hope to take some other day. 
Deception, yes, claimed, justified. 
Since man, wolf, monkey are allied. 
The angry flashes went plowing the sea 
Thru a night wild and dark as could be; 
The live bolts seemed wrecking overhead 
The sky — sea and earth bellowed with dread. 
Mid hurricane blasts the storm held its breath 
Like a beast of evil, low crouching for death. 
Each blast blew fiercer than that gone before 
As rolling in fury the sea lashed the shore. 
Freely the wrecker heaped fuel that night 
Uncaring to whom it proved a false light. 

He felt the storm waning that fevered his brain, 
224 



So renewed his efforts to increase his gain. 

A common practice when dangers abound 

For men by false signals to lure one aground. 

By the fireside glow 'mid circle of friends 

Oft are lighted false tapers for base selfish ends. 

Hark! thru the sea's seething tempest and storm, 

A sound that transfixes the wrecker is born. 

It is the call of distress mariners give — 

Proclamation of cannon when ships cannot live; 

Each minute the peal cuts tempest and night, 

Like the wail of the lost in a losing fight. 

Eyes strained in terror at last see the light 

Revealing itself in that season of fright. 

Tho kindled for evil, purpose unseen, 

A promise of aid tho motive unclean. 

Men are taught in this nether world dark 
To look for the light, nay to follow a spark. 
So heading the vessel trusting their sight 
Are wrecked by the rocks on way to the light. 
Men are wrecked on the sea, are lost on the land 
When for selfish ends their journey is planned 
They sink on the rocks the wild breakers sport 
In the blaze of a promise, a welcome to port. 
The lips of a hope that seemed circled with light 
Was the door of a grave where billows unite. 
The storm's grandest effort, wild laughed the sea 
As the tempest went landward leaving it free. 
The ship ground to pieces, waves sullenly bore 
Her fruitage of trade and life to the shore. 
Not life, but homes whence the living had fled 
In that moment of hope that moment of dread. 

Brief was the battle in that dreadful war 
Which cast up dead sailors with wreckage and spar. 
The wrecker toiled hard, the wrecker toiled fast. 
Assured crime's harvest is short at the best. 
His jetsam and flotsam he piled above tide 
And the cruel sea thanked for liberal divide. 
225 



With rain, salt spray, his coarse locks were wet, 
Night's fearful trouble had bleached out their jet, 
While safely to land cask and parcel were drawn 
Night wore away toward the grey of the dawn. 
Torn clouds, darkness and tempest moved on. 
Floated off on the breeze that preceded the sun. 
His eyes strained for sight in that trying night 
Rolled fevered and restless as increased the light. 
Sadly worn with his toil, full glutted with gain. 
He thought of his cavern and rest but in vain; 
He willed to depart, was doomed to remain; 
The knell of that warning he hears again. 

The soft sky above, the sweet morning breeze, 

Calms not a soul once shorn of its peace. 

The very sea mocked him with strangeness and 

dread 
While intangible voices said, "Care for your dead". 
The blood left his heart, strength oozed away. 
Night torments changed with dawning of day. 
He knew he must face some horrible fact 
Of which he was guilty forewarned of the act. 
A statue of trouble, created a man, 
Made such by resisting the infinite plan. 
Who ignores his conscience, perverts his reason. 
Writhes in the guilt of spiritual treason. 
Suspense was soon over, denouement complete 
The waves a dead sailor threw at his feet. 
The terrible warnings were clear as the sun 
When the wrecker looked on the face of his son. 
In the light of results he was sure of his facts. 
Wiser far, had conviction determined his acts. 
Thought unspoken hath sound for sharp spirit ears 
Distinct as words man of flesh ever hears 
But on earth's life's so sunk in flesh and its wants 
The sweet strain is a jargon the good angel chants. 



226 



A LAMENT 

One woeful night 

Between two April days 
The Tempter's blight 

Fell on life's happy ways. 

My heart of Love 

He charred with passion's flame 
Took peace and purity 

Left tears and shame. 

The dirge of sorrow 
Fills me now with pain 

The sweet life dies 

When innocence is slain. 

I toiled for bread 

And humble was my lot; 
Was lonesome sometimes 
Tho I murmured not 

Indeed I scarce dared dream 
Such life could have an end 

Unless perchance one came 
My lover and my friend. 

Such thought is part of life 

So dream we all 
Base cruel dream 

Since by our friends we fall. 

He came youth's star 
Of promise in the night 

Knocked at the door of love 
Robbed me outright. 



227 



My world, a desert now ; 

All freshness gone, 
Soaked be his bread with tears 

Who wrought my wrong. 

He planned my fall 

Taught in experience's school; 

I listened, trusted, 

Now, he calls me fool! 

My heart's sweet soil 

That grew but kindest love 

Grows hate and bitterness 
Can I such growth reprove? 

Has justice fled to brutes? 

Has mercy died? 
Who says I'm worse than he, 

Who to me lied? 

Not pity, justice 

Is the boon I crave 
For him, as well as me; 

This side the grave. 

JENNIE AND I 

O, bright were the hours of life's sunny morn 
Compared to the present so sad and forlorn 
For hope was abroad then with visions of light 
And filled our young lives with healthy delight. 
We lived, laughed, loved as though never a sigh 
Should escape from the hearts of Jennie and I. 

It was beauty, pleasure, contentment and joy 
How little we thought of future alloy. 
The hours trooped gaily, bright days glided by 
Our lives were spanned by a summer-lit sky 
228 



Our hearts knew no care, our bosoms no sigh; 
Cupid's bright chain circled Jennie and I. 

We gathered wild flowers the fairest In May 

In summer we sported upon the new hay 

In autumn, wandered through forest and grove 

And sang with the wild birds the songs of our love, 

When winter came on and cold winds swept by 

Then the hearth was a haven for Jennie and I. 

But fate grew quite jealous to see us so gay 
And besought brother envy to darken our day 
Soon rumor was busy and with gossip to aid 
Prevailed upon scandal to join in the trade 
All these powers united our love did defy 
And storms soon were beating on Jennie and I. 

THE WAY IT WAS DONE 

A wag once joked and blundered, 
And people thoughtlessly laughed; 

Encouraged, jesting became a fad, 
And tendencies turned to the bad. 

Streams of obliquity fed It 

Conversation showed yawns and gaps. 
Learning assumed to be freakish 

Orthography swooned In collapse. 

The freak took on a new value 

Filched from the normal class, 
The shop-talker became a leader 

And dialect captured the mass. 

Authors exploited beings 

Who mutilated their talk. 
And dowered them with ideas 

Above common learned folk. 
229 



False standards injured religion 
A crisis came to the church. 

A slack twisted christian resulted — 
A reproach to the Nazarene's worth. 

A SUMMER GIRL 

(A Normal Mind An Empire Is) 

I knew her when life's early summers 

Had tangled their gold in her hair 
When life was too happy for murmurs 

And her face showed no visits of care. 
When lark-like she sang to the daisies 

When friends like herself were sweet misses 
When her heart was an eden of praises 

And her mouth a confection of kisses. 

I knew her when age had its innings 

When mother love triumphed o'er care, 
When life knows the end of beginnings, 

Ups and downs, to a crown of white hair. 
Husband, children — the real blessing 

That makes home and life care free 
Both to service and love always saying 

Wife-hood, motherhood — ^jewels for me. 

KISSES 

As the south wind stirs the meadows 

By its quickening breath 
So our natures wake and tremble 

Quickened by a kiss. 

Sunny waves of life possess us 

Kissing clean red lips 
While a springtime's kindly rapture 

Thrills our finger tips. 
230 



Hebe gave the cup at feasting 

To the Gods to sip 
To the earth they spilled some nectar 

By a lover's slip. 

Since the soul grows fat in feasting 

On the palm and lip 
Psyche offers you love's nectar 

Prays you take a sip. 

O, thou soul's sweet introduction 

To a soul in bliss 
Felt by trembling palms in greeting 

Tasted in a kiss. 

Love were mute beyond expression 

In a world like this 
If our speech were not augmented 

By the embrace and kiss. 

THE POWER OF A HUMAN LIFE 

We met in the hall of fashion 
Where the lights were many and bright 
Touched hands became acquainted 
With relish and keen delight. 
A mood had bound my reason 
Had enthralled my heart my will 
To free myself I had tried in vain 
But lacked the power, the skill. 

As flowers bent by dew drops 
Are freed by the kiss of day 
The instant your face, your eyes 
Met mine, my tyrants fled away; 
And my soul was filled with sunshine 
And the shadows left my brain 
And the bird in my heart began to sing 
231 



The songs that follow the rain. 

Then I knew the joys of the victor 
That follow the ended strife 
Then I knew as plants know sunshine 
The power of a human life. 

friend of man, true poet ! 
Thou hast dwelt in every mood 

The highest thoughts and hopes of the world 
Have stopped in your brain to brood 

And love in your heart has nested 

There her kindly offspring dwell 

And from tenderest throes to highest joys 

Its sympathies ebb and swell. 

Thou hast strength of the north to battle 

In the struggle for every right 

Yet sweet as to blossoms, a breeze of the south, 

Are your songs to the children of night. 

Like the land of eternal summer 
Where birds from the winters flee; 
To man is the heart of the poet, 
With its boundless sympathy, 

1 know the fever of waiting 
Has often burned in your brain 
And your soul in its upward struggle 
Has known the depths of pain; 

For to joy you have given expression 
For sorrow have found a moan 
Have measured the hearts of the children of men 
By laying them on your own. 
Earth's dumb to thee owe tribute 
For what they could never write. 
To your eyes are the blind indebted 
For light beyond their sight 
To the prose dull ears of the many 
232 



Thou hast sent a new refrain — 
Your faith and love is thawing hearts 
That long in the winter have lain. 
As the earth bears seed to the sower 
Who knows what the harvest will be 
Your sowing must bear in the hearts of men 
Faith, love and sympathy. 



AMONG THE HILLS 

When autumn sunsets burn along the west 
And purple mists float in the quiet air 
I shun the city called by hills to rest 
While dogs and hunters to the woods repair. 
From busy city, village, train and mill 
Confused a drowsy noise the valleys fill. 

This disembodied throbbing would you analyse 
Telling of struggles in the life we prize? 
It is life, the living force of shops set free 
Adding a tired monotone to air and sea. 
Headlong the April brook flows silent now, 
On distant lake the spectral sail moves slow 
Parting the golden vapors of the day 
In paths, like dreams cut from this world away. 

Each distance has an invitation of its own 
When dying nature puts her glories on. 
The days are pictoral, night vies with day; 
The argent moon rolls on her queenly way. 
In fields phosphoric stars and planets move 
Comets and meteors burn their paths above. 
Height, width and depth profound display 
The boundless goodness of immensity. 



233 



LILIES OF THE VALLEY 

(With a Birthday Letter) 

Go sweet buds and greet my darling 

Please her much, 
Open wide and shed your fragrance 

At her touch. 
Tell her how the heart in sweetness, 

Grows its love. 
To her, fragments of earth, beauty 

This, pray prove. 
Show how little acts of kindness 

Wide apart 
Mark in every life the pathway 

To the heart. 

Out of wintry mould and darkness 

You have come 
Making glad with scent and beauty 

Your low home; 
So in hearts of fleshliest fashion 

Love once born 
Dates the soul's eternal living 

From that morn. 
Thence the heart grows buds of kindness 

Spite of storm. 

Over hills and vales you scattered, 

Day by day. 
Till my grace hath found you, bound you, 

One boquet — 
E'en so, human hearts — law governed 

From above 
Grace, two choosing from the many, 

Binds in love 



234 



Go then dowered rich in blessing 

Swift depart 
Earth and sun and God's love letters 

To the heart. 



IMMORTALITY 

tandlng by a grave I said 
Vhere are they the loved and dead? 
rhe spirit clothing made of clay 
Vas all that here was laid away. 

low often since this mound was made 
/Ly thoughts have pierced the gloomy shade: 
Ind where the spirit currents swell 
met my friends alive and well; 
Lnd in communion rich and sweet 
)ur hearts in unison have beat, 
/Ly doubts and fears all swiftly fled 
Lnd peace abode with me instead. 

^he body changes form in death 
lut spirit has immortal breath 
orever growing, never grown; 
'ach God-like act a star in crown. 
To planet cycle marks the years 
Jeyond the wreck of worlds and spheres, 
t lives, the soul with freed souls dwell, 
orever done with cap and bell. 

n God's great bosom pure and sweet 
Vhat future happiness to meet 
"he faces lost, redeemed from pain 
^he hearts of love by rude acts slain, 
n friendship truth and love to bask 
'orever done with cloak and mask. 



235 



THE RESULT 

I have toiled in the fields of mind 

Until brain is weary with thought 
Discouraged, have failed to find 

Much truth for which I wrought. 
My ears are dull with age, 

My eyes are growing dim; 
Patient, O heart, beyond this stage 

Love calls, faith leads to Him. 



THE SIMPLE LIFE 

Under the trees on the grassy lawn 
Shadows dance in the breeze and sun; 
There song birds sing a roundelay 
Of nesting hopes as spring goes by; 
And toil's made easy day by day 
Tho burdens grow with nestling's cry. 

As I looked and pondered, my spirit saw 
The wondrous sweep of mighty law 
That poises the planets in empty space. 
And holds all things in loving embrace. 

The law of pleasure was part of the plan 
Excess and trouble and pain left out. 
One law for the life of bird and man 
A simple life with never a doubt. 

A wondrous law of sex and life 
That roofs with love the home, the nest, 
That mingles song with toil and strife 
Paying well done with after rest. 

The summer growth, the after rest, 
To grass and shrub and forest tall 
236 



Yields benediction sweet and blest 
In royal beauty crowning all. 

Great mandate of creative mind 
That gave one law to high and low. 
Let ofEspring after its own kind 
Unharmed by chance forever grow. 

Let age and youth together live 
One family in home and nest 
Goodness all evil shall survive 
To live together then is best. 

For in communion kind with kind 
The common weal is best attained. 
Love lightens labor, sweetens mind 
And earth's felicity is gained. 

I learn from birds, that toil and song 
Make happy duties common way. 
That flesh to nature plans belong, 
And love makes life a holiday. 

Sweetness of youth o'erlaps old age 
As strength supplies the yearling's need; 
Each sharing its own heritage 
Receiveth greater things instead. 

TO SAMUEL SPRECKER, D. D., LL. D. 

To you I came a callow youth, 

Self willed, purblind; 
You led me into fields of truth, 

Enthroned the mind, 
Memory enshrines you in my heart, 

The wise, the kind. 



237 



My sky with youth dreams was ablaze; 

You cleared the light, 
Expelled the doubt, the fear, the haze, 

Enlarged my sight. 
May all your sky thro' coming years 

With love be bright. 

OUR MASTERS 

Who is my master, I ask the flesh, 

It replies, thy wants rise ever afresh. 

Who is my master, I ask the ear. 

It answers, all harmonies sweet and clear. 

Who is my master, I ask the eye. 

Beauty, frail beauty is its reply. 

Who is my master, I ask the brain. 

It answers, the phantoms you chase in vain. 

Who are my masters, I ask the heart. 

And its drowsy desires rouse and start 

And in mingled jargon love, and fame. 

And wealth, and pride, the answers came. 

Who are my masters, the answer's clear 

Thy neighbors ready to praise or sneer. 

Aye, public opinion burdens each back 

Fear and ignorance cripples each act. 

The cut of a coat, the shade of a tie, 

The force of a laugh, the slip of a sigh, 

Are frictions of fashion that fever the brain; 

That rob it of pleasure and fill it with pain. 

Acadian life is a dream of the past. 

The life of today is a feverish gasp. 

Years run to waste, often brief is the span 

Productive of acts that are worthy of man. 



238 



THE ORATORIO OF NATURE 

The beauty of woman shall fade; 

The strength of man shall fail; 
Birth and death is the medley played; 

And the harp of nature is frail. 
True forever of matter at strife 

That forever in change is wrought; 
But eternal is the anthem of life 

Thrummed by immortal thought. 

The anthem is loud and clear 

To those who dwell on the hight 
Is pure and sweet to the ravished ear 

Of a soul with its Lord in sight. 
The song of the spheres above 

Growth and decay below; 
Earth's endless dance of death and Life, 

And ocean's ceaseless flow. 

Storm, torrent and thunder roar; 

Each dawn with showers of gold; 
Choral of birds and din of war 

And sounds that are manifold. 
Great sunsets burning the clouds; 

The meteors track of fire 
Are symphonies grand to ears attuned 

To the sweep of nature's lyre. 

Aye, nature in all her moods 

Hints of wisdom beyond earth's beach ; 
While spirits unseen, endeavor unheard 

To utter some higher speech. 
Her lessons on matter are clear 

But of more than matter they teach; 
He must listen with soul, not ear. 

Who would grasp what is out of reach. 

239 



ALL THE WAYS O' LIFE ARE GOOD 

The dazzling prizes that I looked upon, 
Forever failed me and seemed farther on. 
So wrapped and earnest was my quest, 
Men saw my shining face 
And called me blest. 

Life's common fields that stretched 

Along the way 

Eclipsed and darkened seemed 

As oft the sun 

When veiled Its light 

From all It shone upon. 

At last o'ertaken by the coming night 

When weariness and waste of strength 

And dimness of the sight 

Compels to rest; 

As all must learn at length. 

It dawns upon us all too late 

That all the way was good; 

Save In the past It was not understood. 

That all the way we trod 

From our low start — 

Led through the fields of God. 

That wayside blossoms bursting into bloom. 

Come day by day 

Fresh from the master's mind; 

Design, color, sweetness, all combined 

As fabrics from some loom. 

And yet we fare abroad 

And Idly, Ignorantly roam 

To feed on truths 

That cluster fresh at home. 



240 



OBSCURITY 

How hard it is in this every day life, 

To live in contentment alone, 
To win the smallest conquest from strife, 

If victory's trump be unblown. 

How hard to live on a short back street. 
Where callers in carriages never come; 

Though cottage and yard be ever so neat, 
Pride poisons life with a bitter scum. 

Ambition, yes, every one labors and hopes 
For wealth, position and fame. 

The sweetest bud of joy that ope's. 
Is the love of a deathless name. 

ANTAGONISMS 

The mountains are big with dread ; 

The valleys with dead abound; 
Grim dangers lurk in each path we tread, 

And safety seems nowhere found. 

A thunderbolt leaps from the sky; 
Rives forests, in death strews the plain; 
Malaria steals from the swamps. 

And by "fade away" millions are slain. 

We shrink from the hiss of a snake; 

Lose temper at bite of a fly. 
While mote, mosquito or gnat, can make 

Life's currents run arid and dry. 

Life feeds upon life in the mass; 

Earth is but the dust of the dead; 
The waters war with excess; 

Life's history is dying and dead. 
241 



Yet out of the dust of the dead, 

Wisdom weaves every garment of life; 

What is nature's story when read, 
Save living, loving and strife. 

THE WIND AND THE PINES 

The wind and the pines all day long 
Have swept the limits of endless song 
And my soul is full of the highest joy 
That earth can give to man or boy. 
For treading the forest depths I heard 
The pipes of Pan with melody stirred ; 
I breathed the tonic the north wind brings 
And quaffed the nectar of sylvan springs; 
At autumn's banquet on nature's heart 
Reclined, where body and soul take part. 

I saw the roots of earth's secret springs 
And felt the beat of the heart of things. 
For all day long the wind and the trees 
Have played the grandest of melodies 
On nature's organ so vast and grand 
Fitted to songs creation planned. 
Thru pipes storm swept — tempered by suns; 
From trunk to leaf the gamut runs. 
The forest choir with resinous breath 
Sings ever of life, sings ever of death. 
A gummy fatness embalms the air 

And lifts the soul on wings of prayer. 
One hears in moss and lichen and tree, 
The still small voice of Deity. 
I have tested sympathy, such as is found 
In the hearts of men in country and town 
But a purer companionship far than these 
Is found in a forest of living trees. 

Where nature has coverts for wolf and fawn 
And the woodman's life is a lengthened dawn 
242 



An Acadian life near nature's heart 
Unspoiled by the rules of camp or court. 
For body and soul sweet health is found, 
Where air and water and light abound. 
And life's best wine sinks not to the leas 
Where simple pleasures forever please. 

SEEN BY THE WAY 

(After a Night of Sleet) 

As we came home from Martinsville, 

December nineteen six, 
Beauty encamped on plain and hill. 
In tents of Borean tricks. 
Ice crystals jeweled shrub and tree. 
Spread cunning frost-maid filagree 
On stubble, weed, as if to see 
How charming homely things might be, 
When decked in winter tapestry. 

All night before, ice witches 
Wove rich robes of crystal fine. 
And hung them over switches. 
Fence, stump and clinging vine. 
The swaying elm, the switchy beach. 
The dead oak, sturdy, cold. 
Each had a fashion, style and speech, 
Vain mortals fain would hold. 

The north wind wantoned all around, 
Caressing shrub and bough; 
Showering and shaking splendor down, 
To brighten things below. 
The somber crow on midnight wing, 
Flew o'er the ice-like sea; 
Herd, dog and hunter, wondering. 
Charmed, silent seemed to be. 
243 



And as our urban car sped thru 

The scenes erst wintry bare; 

Light as from diamonds, blossomed 

And vanished everywhere. 

Nature most prodigal of wealth, 

Exhausted winter's store, 

To make the earth more beautiful 

Than summer had before. 

Ever the seasons come and go, 

Each vieing with the other. 

To make the earth more beautiful 

And honor the All Father. 

NIAGARA 

(The Fall of Table-rock) 

A whisper comes out of the past, 

From the ages when terra was young; 

That the Devil to make his fame last. 
Set to drown the Small Voice in song. 

So he carved great Niagara's bed 
And started the hydraulic choir; 

But the Voice grew mighty and sped, 
Filling space with multiplied power. 

Chagrined at the fate of his plan; 

In wrath, ever since, he has tried 
To silence these mouths, if he can. 

By tumbling the rocks inside. 

THE UPWARD STRUGGLE 

The longer I live and the more I see 

Of souls that struggle to'ard heights above, 

The stronger this truth comes home to me; 
The Universe rests on the shoulders of love; 

A love so infinite, deep and broad. 

That men rename it, and call it God. 
244 



THE COLUMBIA RIVER 

If there were no gods — 

O river so free! 
I should yield to temptation 

And worship thee. 

Thou dost water the fields, 
Putting life into wheels 

That turn ever sturdily- 
Grinding the meals 

For the children of life; 

Suiting songs to the mouth 
Giving strength to each arm; 

Friend to everything living, 
Guardian from harm. 

Refreshing myself on 

Thy bosom and banks 
I feel it my duty 

To give thee my thanks. 

All life is refreshed as 
It drinks and bathes, 

Yielding songs of joy- 
Abounding in praise. 

TO WHOM DO YOU BOW? 

Some worship the god of yellow corn 
Some worship a cotton king; 
Sun, water, soil, man's servitors, 
Soul, body, needs many a thing 
To refresh, supply waste energy 
And give strength for battling. 

The fight is on in the business world ; 
Each must pay for a place to stand. 
Equality, liberty, statesmen's dreams! 
How the social chasms expand; 
245 



The earth was made for the human race 
Made beautiful, roomy, well planned. 

Select your idol and sail your seas 
Sail on, till your journey's done — 
But stand for the right in every fight, 
Be patient, be just and brave; 
Give to the world the best you have — 
Thus continents are won. 



PLENTY OF ROOM 

There is room in the world for you today 
There is room for each to have his say; 
Bluff says, all is crowded — overdone — 
That the press is swamped by an over run 
That genius is dwarfed; the pen undone; 
That greatness is dead on the heights it won. 
All commercially dead. 

Unwelcome news, if really true, 

I waive you back to the realms of woe, 

Business, not soul, is measured by gold, 

A higher value great thoughts hold. 

O world of man, worth makes it so! 

Each day holds room for the soul to grow; 

The true, the beautiful, everywhere found — 

Declares that wisdom knows no bound. 

Obey God's edict and go to work! 
(It matters little — use knife or fork) 
But of honest labor do your share 
And you will have plenty, with friends to spare. 
They mostly are tramps who will not work 
Parasites they who grumble and shirk. 
Get rid of the boss and the autocrat 
Read your Bible, learn what God's at. 
246 



CHRISTMAS TIME 

Again the happy Christmas tide 

Has set the world in motion 

Along the streets the people glide 

In throngs, a human ocean. 

The wintry air vibrates with life 

Faces and eyes look eager, 

Does bargain hunting cause the strife, 

Or are life's good things meager? 

No, pleasure pulses in each breast 

With memories true and tender; 

Friends that are sundered east or west 

All kindly now remember. 

No longer overhead is heard 

That angel choir singing 

Yet earth holds sacred every word 

When Christmas bells are ringing. 

The time of peace has not yet come 

Tho earth is old and hoary; 

The fields of Mars have widened some 

And all his crops are gory. 

King Christmas brings a happy reign 

Tho many days are evil; 

We fill our hearts with joy again 

Our thoughts grow kind and civil. 

It is worth eleven months at least 
To feel one's heart-blood tingle 
Tho brief, superlative the feast 
When at our best we mingle. 
Love bursts to bloom In happy words 
And friendships shared grow stronger 
When talk and jest and song accords 
We give and take and laugh and wish. 
The happy hours were longer; 

247 



Fond memory treasures what is best, 
Hope keeps our life blood flowing. 

Along life's journey much we've missed 

And much we still remember 

Roses of June were sunshine kist — 

Old yule-fires cheer December. 

So let us count our loss and gain 

Before the year is ended 

And fearless sail life's stormy main 

Tho smiles and tears are blended. 

The storms of life will soon be past 

The clouds away be drifted; 

The fadeless skies will show at last, 

When present fogs are lifted. 

I send you kindest greeting, friends, 

Perchance, tho not your debtor — 

God bless you every one, so ends, 

My lengthy Christmas Letter. 



ALL ARE TRAMPS 

Uneven the road and heavy the track, 

This life journey entered, no one may turn back; 

Civilians and soldiers in houses and camps 

After gain, after fame, from birth — all are tramps. 

Men are born with limits of station, health, 

Of family, nation, of poverty, wealth. 

Inherited burdens man's liberty cramps 

Both in joy and sorrow as onward he tramps. 

Choose we science, hard labor, poetry, art, 
Man ever is weary and hungry at heart. 
The mountains are chilly, the vales full of damps 
After rest, after comfort all men are tramps. 
The rich toil for honor, the poor for bread 
For great, for little, by want all are led. 
248 



The blind ask a leader, the seeing need lamps, 
After much, after little— all, all are tramps. 

How narrow our vision, our wisdom how small; 
Does an awkward life journey, a grave end it all? 
Look aloft, be wise, keep oil in your lamps 
For good or evil, to'ard judgment we are tramps. 

THE PROMISE 

Let the Woman's heel, he said, 
Henceforth bruise the serpent's head. 
When every foe is dead at last 
Man shall recover Eden lost. 
Till then, the fight 'twixt good and ill 
Let every creature wage with will. 

Goodness abounds inviting, sweet. 
While evil's kept beneath the feet. 
The Hero's triumph each may feel 
Who treads on wrong — rights with his heel. 
Cheat not your heart, nor boast a flaw, 
God reigns and will fulfill all Law. 

Quit ye like men of old and feel 
His promise to the woman's heel. 
Brave Achilles felt death's steel 
Where Styx no armor gave his heel. 
The giant's blood armed Siegfried over. 
Save where one leaf clave to his shoulder, 

Which in his harness left a door 
Thru which his life fled like a star. 
Balder the beautiful in days of old 
Had love's best pledge (we're told) 
From everything, save mistletoe. 
That blind boys harmless plant 
Under which lovers kiss and happy meet. 
249 



Even mother love saw In that plant no harm, 
But all accord to it a Lover's charm. 
Yet shaped an arrow, fitted to a bow, 
Blind Hoerder shoots. The beautiful lays low. 
Balder's sweet Soul was doomed to shades below. 
A broader promise than a giant's blood 
A broader promise than the stygian flood 
Man has in Christ, assuring wealth of good. 



CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS 

Ring on, O Bells of Joy ! 

Till Israel shall confess 

The Christ; once Bethlehem's Boy 

Is Christ — the world to bless. 

Gift ever new — tho story old — 
The Israel Miracles manifold. 
It cost God much to lead them out, 
Cost more to bring them in. 

Egypt to Canaan — Type no doubt 
Of sinners saved from sin. 
The many works to save them wrought 
Were scarcely done before forgot. 

Fame, country lost, abroad they grope their way, 
With Christ left out, observe our Christmas Day. 
Surpassing strange, even Judah should forget — 
Christ's star hath risen nevermore to set. 

O, blind indifference to Love Divine — 

In current books we often find 

His works belittled, only brought to mind 

To grace some romance of the common kind. 



250 



THE VOICE OF NATURE 

[Camp Petrel, Adirondacks, N. Y.] 

From the camp fire, sparks shot upward, 

Ambitious to visit the stars; 
They perished in fields of vapor 

None passing our cloudland bars. 

Stars widened the upper spaces 
And bathed them in gentle light 

As I looked and apprehended 
The lessons of the night. 

Like camp fires are nations consuming — 

And every man has a soul 
Sending its hope sparks upward 

To some heaven, its final goal. 

The winds on their way to the cities 
Bear blessings from plants and trees, 

O, Rulers, learn wisdom from nature, 
Send them friendship, love, rest, peace. 

SING ON 

[Many are the birds that sing among the graves. 
Many their losses and bereavements, yet they still 
sing ow] 

I sang to my soul in sorrow 

When I saw the roses fall 
And nature staged her mystery, 

The fate that waits upon all. 
I sang for my heart grew lonely 

As hands and faces were missed. 
For some loved voice fled forever 

From lips no more to be kissed. 
I noted the wealth of the Nations, 
251 



Of life I computed the sum, 
Home, shop and grave — great stations, 

Man's journey under the sun. 
Ambitions, love, tears, laughter, 

Life's amazing yield, v^hen done. 

I sang to my soul in sorrow 

In the swellings of manhood's prime. 
For the cares of life are many 

And sharp is the tooth of time. 
Great aims we prize in the distance, 

Grow pale as we journey on; 
Is it the struggle for existence? 

As neared their charms seem gone. 
I sang, for song gives courage 

When the battle is fierce and dread; 
When the heart is hot and restless 

And fields are stubbled and dead. 
I paused as the conflict slackened. 

Considered the gain all told. 
And found the lessons golden — 

Life's blessings are manifold. 

I sang to my soul in autumn 

As the sun nears the afterglow. 
When the past is a memory showing 

The efforts of long ago. 
I am learning the song of triumph. 

For promises grow more bright 
As we near the silent river 

And enter the shades of night. 
For the soul in the nearing distance 

Sees the grey of the coming day, 
Eternity's dawn in splendor 

Breaking just over the way. 
And joins in the song of triumph — 

Jubilatta! all victories won. 
Earth's voice sinks sweet into silence 

At the Master's words — ^Well done. 
252 



NAPLES 

An April Sabbath camps upon thy hills ; 

Business is hushed — the ocean air is chill. 
From out blue skies the sun's soft light 

Affords grand views from Posillipo's hill. 

Where Solfatara stood and belched 
From lava-lips her many molten floods 

Only a valley now is seen ; low, grandeurless ; 
Skirted by brambles blown from stunted woods, 

Long ranked satanic terror of the world. 

The Centuries stole thy light, thy might and now 
Beyond the city and the bay, volcanic throes declare 

Thy mantle dread, rests on Vesuvius brow. 

O Naples, City of delights! thy thoroughfares 
Shouldered by Alps, borne to the heights 

Whence men may note thy daily toils and cares 
And see thee wanton with the enchantress night. 

Dig thy lap's dust — old cities reappear — 
Pompeii, Herculaneum, Cumae, Baia 

Rise from their graves, the past is here. 

Its wealth, pleasure, wisdom, folly ours today. 

Here from death's house (buttressed by centuries) 
Come Caesar, Piso, Pompey, Cicero, Marius, 

Virgil, Tasso, Horace, Paul, Seneca and others 
Across the mighty summits sloping down to us. 

Epochs of ruin thou hast known ; yet kept 

The step of progress, while thine eyes have wept. 

Triumphs in art and music thou dost own; 
Many thy treasures, hence world tourists come. 



253 



Greece nurtured thee a thousand years. 

Then thou, Parthenope changed name, wast wed 
To Rome and since, by bloody handed Mars 

Hast time and time again been widowed. 



^fcj*- 



Naples, Neapolis, O city old yet new; 

Youth, beauty, strength are with thee evermore. 
Thy children, blest with loveliness — 

Sorento, Capri, Ischia, thy jewels Kohinoor. 



254 



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